How much pressure are prisons under?published at 12:27 BST

12:27 BST

By Tom Edgington

The government says prisoners need to be released early in order to prevent a capacity crisis.

Prisons are almost full, data from the Ministry of Justice shows.

As of 2, external8 September, external, there were , external87,499, external, externalp, externaleople , externalbeing held in prisons in England and Wales.

That’s 98% of their operational capacity and only slightly down from a peak of 99% in summer 2024.

Longer sentences and more recalls of released prisoners have contributed to the rising population.

A review into prisons, launched by the government, external, says the system faces significant and long-standing pressures. It states: “Population growth, an ageing estate, violence, self-harm, evolving security threats and workforce challenges have combined to place increasing strain on the system.”

Without the early release scheme, the government says prisoner numbers will outstrip capacity.

Image source, Getty Images

What is the policy?

Roughly 70,000 offenders will be eligible for the permanent scheme.

It will see them released early before their whole sentence is complete.

Today's release is the first of 10 that will take place until June 2027.

Who is eligible?

Offenders serving standard fixed sentences, who were due to be released after 50% of their term, will leave prison after 33%

More serious offenders on fixed terms, who would have been released at 66% of their sentence, will be released after 50% is served.

It won't apply to people guilty of murder, rape, serious child sex and other grooming offences, and manslaughter.

Why is it needed?

Prisons across England and Wales are almost full. At the rate cells are being occupied, there would be no spare cells by Christmas 2026.

What do critics say?

Some of those released have committed domestic abuse offences. London Victims' Commissioner Andrea Simon said this is a "genuinely terrifying prospect for their victims".

Chief Inspector of Probation Martin Jones criticised the electronic tagging system, which tracks offenders, saying it had not "kept pace" and could create "a false sense of assurance".

"We’re worried about the number of people we’re releasing who are going to be recalled," a prison governor told the BBC.

Madeleine Lake
Live reporter

Image source, Prison Officers Association

The General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association, Steve Gillan, says he's concerned for victims worrying that some prisoners could be be mistakenly released before they are eligible.

“There is no doubt in my mind that potentially individuals could be released in error due to the volume of work."

Alongside the early release, officers are dealing with their daily duties and are busy due to overcrowding and "stark" violence, Gillan says, adding that every week people are mistakenly released.

Prison officers are under "enormous pressure", he notes, with some witnessing traumatising events that "some people wouldn't want to see in a lifetime."

Gillan also voices concerns that victims of crime won't be adequately protected, citing reports from previous release schemes showing a delay in tagging offenders.

He says he will be seeking clarification from the Ministry of Justice on how the tagging technology will be used - in particular to exclusion zones where offenders are not allowed to go.

How many prisoners have been released early under Labour?published at 11:53 BST

11:53 BST

By Tom Edgington

In September 2024, the new Labour government introduced an emergency release scheme that allowed eligible prisoners to be released after serving 40% of their sentence, rather than the usual 50%, to free up places.

Prisoners serving life sentences and sentences for rape, grooming, serious child sexual offences and manslaughter were excluded.

That scheme saw 70,066 prisoners released under Sir Keir Starmer.

Using early releases to manage prison overcrowding isn’t new.

Previous governments led by Labour and the Conservatives have each introduced emergency measures when the prison system has come under strain.

In October 2023, Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government began releasing eligible offenders up to 18 days early. The scheme was eventually expanded to up to 70 days ahead of offenders’ release date.

During its lifetime, there were 13,325 releases - an average of 1,110 a month.

Claire Ellison & Levi Jouavel
reporting from HMP Wandsworth

Michael Bogle, a former bus driver, has spoken to us outside Wandsworth Prison. He says he would celebrate his release with "some kebabs" and that in future he would avoid prison.

He tells me he served 78 days for shoplifting soap detergent, and that he had been given a suspended 32-week sentence but had breached it. He's now headed to a probation appointment and to have an electronic tag fitted.

Bogle says prison was "awful" as prisoners were locked up for 23 hours a day. One prisoner had recently taken his own life, he adds.

"It was nice to get out," he says.

When asked by reporters what he would say to the prime minister, he says: "Keep the early release going. It’s good. Tagging is better than prison."

Bogle agrees there was a risk he would shoplift again, but "hopefully not", adding that he's keen to go back to driving buses.

Linsey Smith
Reporting from HMP Humber

There is a steady stream of prisoners being released from HMP Humber, carrying bin liners of their possessions and waiting for lifts from family.

Some have made claims that the probation service will not be able to cope with today’s influx.

Owen Hill from Scarborough left the compound on his planned release date. His original conviction was for burglary. He had been recalled for 56 days due to breaching the terms of his licence, he says.

Hill claims there is “not much support” for some of his friends who are being released early today and says that from his experience of adult life in and out of prison, the probation service is overwhelmed.

He walked out with Andrew Gaskin, who tells us he is being released 12 days early from his dangerous driving conviction. Gaskin says he was “over the moon” and “will not be coming back to Humber again”.

As he is collected by his wife, he says he is receiving “some sort of help" from probation services.

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

Image source, WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The system for electronically monitoring offenders - tagging - is one of the most important innovations in criminal justice of this century.

Today there are three types of tags: curfew, location and alcohol. The original tags transmitted a radio signal and communicated with a base station in a home so that the authorities could know if the person was at home and abiding by a curfew.

GPS devices were rolled out in 2018 so an individual could be tracked 24/7. Probation teams can see not only if someone is sticking to their curfew but also going to appointments or classes relating to their sentence - as well as staying out of areas they are banned from.

Alcohol tags, rolled out from 2020, automatically measure and record the level of alcohol emitted by body sweat every 30 minutes. If someone drinks, the tag will know.

The probation team will order the offender to be within proximity of a little box which will read the data regularly during the day.

• As a reminder, a report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) found that almost half of electronic tags used to track offenders' movements are not fitted on time

We've spoken to one offender released early outside HMP Brixton in London who says the justice system is "setting us up to fail".

He was asked whether he might end up returning to prison.

"One hundred per cent. If my probation officer hasn't got me anywhere to live, I'll be getting recalled back to prison because I've nowhere to get my tag put on."

"I may as well go out shoplifting," he says.

Flora Grafton
Reporting from HMP Wealstun

James Baker has been released from HMP Wealstun, near Wetherby in West Yorkshire.

He tells me he was jailed in July for a year for shoplifting offences but was released today under the scheme. He says he will now go back to Bradford to see his family.

Asked what the conditions are like inside the prison, Baker says: "They’re not too bad for a prison. They’re not the best, but they’re not too bad. They could be better, I think all prisons could be better."

"There are lots of people [inside], it’s very overcrowded."

Baker says he’s "happy" about being released early, but admits he's "a bit nervous" - he believes the early release scheme will help some people, but that others "will just come straight back".

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

In practice, it's almost certainly only prisoners who have served 33% - rather than 50% - who are being released today.

This is because those being released 50% of the way through their sentence - rather than 66% - will have committed more serious offences.

As we've previously reported, today's releases will include people with convictions for fraud, domestic abuse, and coercive control.

But the fact is that the entire law - the Sentencing Act 2026 - enacting the early release scheme comes into force today, and people could have been told in letters or informally to expect an offender to be released.

A Swansea woman says she is "fearing for her life" after being told her ex-husband is being released from prison earlier than expected.

Karen Haynes says it has made her question how she and her children will be protected.

Her ex-partner, Christopher Haynes, was sentenced to 21 months in prison in March, pleading guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour. She has been told he will now be released in November.

From today, new rules in England and Wales will mean that some prisoners will serve less of their sentence in custody before being released on licence.

According to the justice secretary, the UK Government understands the concern of victims, and new measures are being introduced to monitor and manage criminals after they leave prison.

Michaela Hall, 49, from Mount Hawke, in north Cornwall, was killed in 2021 by her partner Lee Kendall. He was later handed a sentence of minimum 21 years in prison.

At the time of the murder, Kendall had been released just two weeks prior for a previous attack on Michaela.

At an inquest in 2024, a coroner said there had been "shortcomings and errors" by probation services before her death, adding it had "wrongly assessed as medium" the risk of serious harm posed by Kendall.

Michaela's father Peter has called on officials to "do their job right" to prevent similar incidents amid the start of the early release scheme today.

He tells BBC Breakfast that he feels for the domestic abuse victims whose abusers could be returning to their homes "because there's nowhere else for them to go" and questioned who would protect them.

"Police failed Michaela because they didn't even inform her that he was coming to her house."

Michaela's son, Shaun, adds there will be "a lot of people that are scared" and many may not be prepared for their abusers to be released early "or know how to deal with it".

Peter says he feels obliged to go forward and tell people how "catastrophic" such incidents can be for families, adding: "For these victims, their families go through an awful lot for a long time. You don't put it behind you."

He says he feels sympathy with the people having to oversee the early release scheme as "it will be their responsibility" and "they have to do their job right".

• As a reminder, the scheme does not apply to indeterminate sentences - which are handed out for the most serious offences like murder, and require a parole board to deem a prisoner safe to be released

Image source, Family handout

Labour MP Catherine Atkinson, who is chair of the Justice Committee, says the early release scheme is due to "more than a decade of policy failure" in managing prison capacity issues.

In a statement released this morning, she adds that "serious questions" remain about pressures on prison and probation staff, tagging and how offenders reintegrate into their communities.

Whilst claiming that the scheme is "regretfully a matter of necessity", Atkinson says the safety of victims and the public is "paramount" and ministers must commit to resourcing efforts to stop reoffending.

Lucy Gilder
Live page reporter

There were 80,829 incomplete crown court cases at the end of June, external in England and Wales - a record high.

The number of cases waiting a year or more to conclude also reached a record high of 23,706.

The biggest share of open cases was for violence against the person offences (30%).

The Institute for Government think tank cites several reasons, external for the rising crown court backlog, including austerity-era cuts to justice spending and staffing, high workloads, poor administration, and tech issues.

The large number of open cases puts strain on the prison system because of the thousands of defendants who are remanded in custody waiting for trial or sentencing.

People on remand made up nearly a fifth of the prison population, external at the end of June. That figure has been falling since last year but is still higher than around the time of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

In response to the first early releases, a prison governor tells me: "This is a much needed relief from the pressure we’ve been facing in terms of prison capacity for some time.

"It will probably allow us to get some much needed maintenance work done. But it isn’t going to solve the overarching problem."

"We’re worried about the number of people we’re releasing who are going to be recalled - that is returned to prison for breaching their licence conditions or reoffending," they add.

There were 51,419 licence recalls in the year ending March 2026, up from 40,259 in the previous year - a 28% increase.

Simon Thake
Reporting from HMP Moorland

At about 08:30, the big green gate here at HMP Moorland opened and first prisoner came out. Dressed in a tracksuit, carrying a black bag, he walked past us.

He was clear he didn't want to be recorded by cameras about his experience in the category C South Yorkshire prison, which holds about 1,000 men and young offenders.

However, he did tell us he wanted to get to Bradford and was planning on starting his journey by hopping on a bus at the stop just outside the prison and heading into nearby Doncaster.

The man said he was part of the early release scheme and described being "delighted" to get out. He didn't want to talk about why he had been imprisoned in the first place.

Rather than the bus, as we were talking a couple of his friends pulled up in a white car, and after emotional scenes, they jumped in and headed off.

Colleagues at jails in North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire tell me they are seeing the first prisoners released from their sites.

However, it appears this may be a long process with one reporter being told it could take "most of the day".

Linsey Smith
Reporting from HMP Humber

Utter joy from one young man who walked out of HMP Humber carrying a large holdall and wearing a tracksuit and trainers.

He was met by two other men who arrived in a car. They hugged and cheered as they greeted him inside the HMP Humber compound, surrounded by prison officers.

All three got into the vehicle. They slowed down and wound down the window as they approached us, with the young man who we saw leaving prison laughing and shouting: "I'm free, freebie!"

As they drove away cheering, he did not answer our question about whether his release was early.

Guy Lambert
Society reporter

The gates are opening and the first inmates are being released here at HMP Brixton.

David, 50, tells us he has been released after serving a third of his 20 weeks sentence after he was convicted of stealing a pair of glasses from Selfridges.

He says he doesn’t believe the early release scheme is going to work because inmates aren’t being supported on the outside.

“Stop sending people to prison in the first place. Help them before they get there,” he says. “I’ve been in and out of prison all my life. It’s help I need.

“They are setting us up to fail so I just end up back in jail.”

Kirsty Pellant, a deepfake victim who discovered that hundreds of her photographs had been used to create a fake identity online, says uncertainty over the early release scheme is "adding to everybody's anxiety".

She has been told her perpetrator is eligible for the scheme but only knows he will not be released this month.

Kirsty tells the BBC Radio 4's Today programme that victims have been left in "such a dangerous position" as they have no idea when offenders will be released and therefore cannot prepare themselves for such a scenario.

"It's very good and well for the government to say there will be extra supervisions and everything else but what will that look like in reality?," she asks, adding that victims have not been reassured "in any way that we are going to be protected".

"That uncertainty is definitely adding to everybody's anxiety about this," Kirsty says. "How do we know offenders are going to come out and interventions have happened to make sure that they're not going to be as much of a danger then they were at conviction point."

"The measures all seem to be reactive and there doesn't seem to be preventative measures to keep us safe," she adds.

Adina Campbell
UK correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

A report earlier this week found that almost half of electronic tags used to track offenders' movements are not fitted on time.

The report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) says some criminals are waiting up to five months to be fitted with a tag, leading to repeated breaches of court and prison orders.

Only 55% of GPS and radio frequency tags were fitted on time, while 60% of alcohol monitoring tags were fitted promptly, according to the report's findings.

In some cases, there were waits of more than two weeks for the equipment while one in 10 people waited five months to be tagged after the required time.

Some of the reasons for tags not being fitted on time included individuals not making themselves available.

Most of the prisoners being released early, starting from today, will require tagging.