UK government releases more prisoners to address jail overcrowding

The UK government began the third phase of a plan to reduce prison overcrowding by releasing hundreds of offenders from jails in England and Wales on Tuesday.

This latest wave involves people who have served no more than one third of their sentences behind bars, a change from the previous rule that required them to serve half. The current group includes people convicted of burglary, fraud, and affray, as well as some individuals facing lower-end firearms charges.

Officials expect at least 2,500 people to spend the final two thirds of their sentences on a community licence by the end of the year. The program will continue to release people serving increasingly longer sentences until next June, when it will include those serving more than 12 years. The government excludes people convicted of more than 70 specific crimes from the early release scheme, such as rape, manslaughter, and grooming offences.

The program has already freed at least 1,350 people since 1 October. Recent data shows the jail population has dropped enough to create 2,076 spare spaces. While the Ministry of Justice says it is investing £700 million to hire 1,300 extra probation officers and use artificial intelligence to manage workloads, the Napo union is considering strike action over pay. Victims' groups like Refuge have expressed concern that perpetrators of domestic abuse are included in the releases.