UK government scraps early prison release plan amid overcrowding crisis

The British government will confirm on Tuesday its reversal of an early release scheme designed to ease prison overcrowding, scrapping plans to free about 5,000 prisoners from October, according to reports. The original proposal had already been scaled back from 6,000 after ministers exempted rapists and those convicted of serious child sexual abuse offenses.

David Gauke, the former Conservative justice secretary who led an independent sentencing review for Prime Minister Andy Burnham, warned that maintaining prison capacity at near-maximum levels carried significant risks. “He is in a bind,” Gauke told the Guardian, referring to Burnham. “I have some sympathy for any government that is wrestling with this, but that is why we came forward with the recommendations we came forward with.” Gauke added that he hoped the government was not “taking a big risk on prison capacity” and called it “irresponsible” to release prisoners serving indefinite Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences, which Burnham has pledged to abolish.

The government has pinned hopes on reducing the number of IPP prisoners and accelerating deportations of foreign nationals to free up space. Gauke noted that releasing IPP prisoners posed higher public protection risks than the categories excluded from the early release scheme, citing disciplinary records as evidence of their continued detention.

On Monday, the government announced an £110 million investment to accelerate the largest prison-building program since the Victorian era, aiming to add 14,000 spaces by 2031. The funding will also convert existing prison spaces, including unused offices and laundry rooms, into cells.

A recent inspection report of Brinsford prison near Wolverhampton found alarming levels of violence among inmates, a rise in self-harm to “worrying levels,” frequent use of pepper spray by guards, and excessive time spent by prisoners in their cells, often under the influence of drugs. The report also highlighted poor infrastructure, including dirty communal areas and dilapidated showers. The Howard League for Penal Reform stated that prisons in England and Wales are effectively over capacity, with some single cells housing two inmates, despite official occupancy figures nearing 98%.

Criticism of the early release plan intensified following the case of Andrew Harper, a police officer killed in 2019. Two of his killers, sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter, would have been eligible for early release under the original scheme, a prospect that drew outrage from Harper’s family. The government later amended the plan to exclude rapists and serious child sexual abuse offenders.