Survivors ‘looking over their shoulders’ as hundreds of criminals freed under early release

Survivors ‘looking over their shoulders’ as hundreds of criminals freed under early release Hundreds of prisoners are due to be released from jail on Thursday as part of measures to deal with overcrowding - Bookmark Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in Survivors across the country will be “looking over their shoulder”, the domestic abuse commissioner has warned, as hundreds of prisoners walk free from jail on Thursday in the first wave of the government’s early release scheme. Some 4,500 prisoners are scheduled to be released in stages over the next year in a bid to manage chronic prison overcrowding and prevent the justice system from collapsing. Around 700 offenders are due to leave English and Welsh jails on Thursday. Criminals convicted of rape, and the most serious child sex offences will be exempt from release. Prisoners guilty of manslaughter will also be excluded after a public outcry over the potential release of the killers of PC Andrew Harper. However, many domestic abusers remain eligible for release, prompting a warning from the commissioner Dame Nicole Jacobs, who said “survivors across the country will be looking over their shoulder and living in fear because the government and our criminal justice system has failed to protect them”. She added: “It is frankly shameful that as the scheme begins - which ministers have had months to prepare for - I still have no assurance that the danger perpetrators pose has been properly considered and assessed with meaningful input from victims and the specialist services supporting them.” Dame Nicole said many survivors were now “being forced to make their own plans to protect themselves, including uprooting their lives, because they simply do not trust that sufficient safeguards are in place to manage their abuser safely in the community”. Alice Russell-Harris, public affairs lead at the charity Refuge, said the failure to exempt domestic abusers from early release would put survivors at risk. She added: “Although perpetrators may be released with licence conditions, including electronic tagging and restriction zones, we know that licence conditions are frequently breached by perpetrators, and we are concerned that an under-resourced probation service will not respond swiftly enough to keep survivors from further harm.” She added that some survivors “may have no alternative than to seek emergency refuge accommodation away from their place of residence”, with these services already under immense pressure. Victims’ commissioner Claire Waxman said “confidence being projected by government is not yet matched by the reality on the ground”. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has insisted that offenders will be released under the “toughest supervision in British history”. New restriction zones will be put in place to control the movements of the highest-risk sexual and violent offenders, confining many to an area just a few miles wide, the government said. The department also promised that new technology being rolled out later this year will give probation near-live access to tagging data, so that any breaches of conditions are quickly spotted. Justice secretary Alex Norris said: “We understand the anxiety victims face ahead of offenders release dates, but the greatest danger to victims would be prisons running out of cells for dangerous criminals which was the crisis this government inherited. “Our plan will make sure this never happens again by building 14,000 prison places while subjecting offenders to the toughest ever controls – leaving them nowhere to hide and under no doubt that we are watching them." Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said the early release scheme “was absolutely necessary to head off the prospect of a capacity crisis once again engulfing our prison system”, adding: “Although the introductions of exemptions may be politically understandable, it has disrupted the careful planning required to successfully implement these changes.” She warned that a new capacity crisis could emerge in the months and years ahead as prisons continue to battle for room. A report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) revealed this week that almost half of electronic tags used to track offenders’ movements are not fitted on time. Some criminals are waiting up to five months to be fitted with a tag, the report said. Vice president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, Sara Crane, warned that the financial cost of early release would now fall on policing. She added: “Forces will be expected to manage increased demand from offender monitoring, licence breaches, recalls, safeguarding concerns and further offending, while colleague in the Probation Service face huge capacity crises...Every hour spent dealing with the consequences of this scheme is an hour that cannot be spent tackling neighbourhood crime, protecting vulnerable people or supporting victims.” 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. A total of 70,066 prisoners had been released under the scheme up to the end of March 2026, according to the latest MoJ data. Under a separate process introduced by the previous Conservative government, 13,325 prisoners in England and Wales were freed early between 17 October 2023 and 9 September 2024.