Keir Starmer’s plan to ease the overcrowding crisis in prisons must not allow high-risk offenders to walk free again, a domestic abuse charity has warned.
Labour’s new government is expected to authorise emergency measures this week under which criminals could be automatically freed after serving between 40% and 45% of their sentence.
Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, has been told the move could stop prisons in England and Wales running out of space as early as next week.
However, the charity Refuge has raised concerns after early-release schemes under the last government freed several people jailed for domestic abuse.
Evidence was unearthed in May by Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons. He found that a “high-risk” inmate at HMP Lewes who posed a danger to children had his release date brought forward despite “having a history of stalking, domestic abuse and being subject to a restraining order”.
Refuge said women must be reassured by ministers that the same mistakes would not be repeated.
A spokesperson for the charity said: “When considering options for the early release scheme, we need assurances from the government that those convicted of violence against women and girls (VAWG) offences will be exempt from this scheme and any further measures to tackle overcrowding.”
Mahmood has entered office facing the same logistical problem that loomed over the last six months of Rishi Sunak’s government: overcrowded jails, with little prospect of a let-up in the number of convictions and custodial sentences.
The Guardian disclosed last month that the second week in July would be a tipping point for jails in England and Wales, after Whitehall briefings to prison governors.
Under the present rules, prisoners serving standard determinate sentences – those with fixed end-dates – are released at the halfway point.
Once released, they serve their sentence on licence, meaning they are supervised by the probation service in the community and must abide by certain conditions.
A lowering of the automatic release point could mean thousands of additional inmates being let out early. Whitehall sources have played down claims that the figure could be as high as 40,000 prisoners.
Sexual, violent and terror-related offenders are supposed to be excluded from the proposal, but concerns have been raised that domestic abusers could be allowed to walk away from jail with no notice given to their victims.
Probation officers have told the Guardian that high-risk prisoners are being regularly let out without enough time for safeguarding checks.
Ministers could also trigger Operation Early Dawn, a crisis measure that allows offenders to be housed in police cells when jails are full, while other measures can prompt magistrates courts to delay cases.
The measures are in addition to a temporary government scheme – the end-of-custody supervised licence scheme – under which prisoners can be released up to 70 days early.
Nicole Jacobs, the independent domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, said the end-of-custody scheme had put women in danger.
Ministry of Justice officials consulted this weekend with prison governors and staff over a list of proposals.
Pressure is expected to ease in August because the courts sit for fewer days between then and October, meaning fewer people are sent to jail.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, on a neighbourhood policing visit in south London on Monday, said there was not going to be a “quick fix” to solve overcrowding in prisons and suggested the government was “extremely concerned” by the situation it had inherited from the Tories.
“It seems to have been a scorched-earth policy in which they have failed to build the prisons that we need,” she said.
It has also emerged that long-term prisoners in Scotland could be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence under government plans.
The Scottish government has been wrestling with the problem of a rising prison population in recent months, with a programme of early release now under way for more than 500 inmates.
A consultation published on Monday showed some prisoners could be allowed out under licence after serving two-thirds of their sentence; this would be a return to the policy from before February 2016. Prisoners in Scottish jails are at present eligible to be released under licence six months from the end of their sentence.
A UK government spokesperson said: “The prison system is in crisis – with record numbers of offenders behind bars. This is putting significant pressure on the whole justice system and turning prisons into a breeding ground for more crime.
“We will get a grip of the situation so we can lock up the most dangerous offenders, protect the public and make our prisons safer for hard-working staff.”
