Hundreds of prisoners to walk free this week as early release scheme begins

Hundreds of prisoners to walk free this week as early release scheme begins A number of of prisoners will walk free from jail on Thursday, October 1 as part of the government's efforts to free up capacity in overcrowded prisons across the country Hundreds of prisoners will walk free from jail on Thursday as part of the Government’s expanded early release scheme. It will be the first wave of prisoners to be released, with around 5,000 scheduled to be released in stages over the next year, down from 6,000, after ministers intervened to exempt rapists and the most serious child sex offenders. The plan to free up capacity in the overcrowded male prison estate comes as figures show the number of people behind bars has jumped by more than 1,700 in the past three months. The prison population of England and Wales stood at 87,499 on Monday, according to weekly data published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). This is up from 85,761 on June 29 – a rise of 1,738, or 2%. The early release scheme is needed to prevent the justice system from collapsing, after a summer when the issue dominated news headlines. After changes made criminals will be excluded from the scheme if they have been jailed for a range of offences, including members of child grooming gangs convicted of indecent assault. Prisoners guilty of manslaughter will also be excluded, meaning the killers of Pc Andrew Harper, who died in the line of duty in 2019, will not be eligible. The initial plans to overhaul the scheme, which would have seen Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were convicted of Pc Harper’s manslaughter in 2020, eligible for early release from next year faced significant backlash. Justice Secretary Alex Norris has apologised to victims who faced a summer of uncertainty as the Government made a number of changes to the plans. The expansion of the scheme is happening as a result of the 2026 Sentencing Act, which allows ministers to reduce the point at which certain prisoners can be freed from 40% of a fixed-term sentence to a third. The first wave expects to see several hundred people released, with more to follow in subsequent months. The total prison population of England and Wales is now 1,022 below the record high of 88,521, which was reached on September 6 2024 in the wake of the public disorder that followed the Southport killings earlier that year. The Government launched the early release scheme just four days later, on September 10 2024. Images of prisoners celebrating their early release caused public anger in the following weeks. Inmate Daniel Dowling-Brooks said “big up Keir Starmer” as he was picked up in a convoy of a white Bentley and black Mercedes G-Wagon outside HMP Swaleside in Kent in October 2024. Another prisoner at the same jail was welcomed with an embrace as he was picked up in a black Rolls-Royce by a group of men in matching hoodies. Under the scheme, a total of 70,066 prisoners had been released up to the end of March 2026, according to the latest MoJ data. Although prison numbers fell sharply in the weeks following the launch of the scheme, they started climbing again in early 2025 and have since fluctuated mostly between 86,000 and 88,000. The current scheme is not the first of its kind. Under a separate process introduced by the previous Conservative government, 13,325 prisoners in England and Wales were freed early between October 17 2023 and September 9 2024.