Severe staff shortages mean the beleaguered probation service cannot safely monitor prisoners in the community under new plans to free up prison spaces, senior figures have warned.
In a review ordered by justice secretary Shabana Mahmood as the prison crisis boiled over during her first days in office, her Tory predecessor, David Gauke, recommended freeing many prisoners a third of the way into their sentence and telling judges to avoid jailing people for less than a year in favour of community sentences.
