Prisoners greeted Andy Burnham with thanks today as they became the first among thousands to leave custody under the controversial early-release programme.
From 8.30am, inmates were seen smiling, raising their fists and walking out of prisons across England and Wales.
Around 700 people serving sentences of up to 19 months are due to be released in the scheme’s opening phase. More than 4,500 prisoners are expected to leave custody early by June.
Those being freed include fraudsters, domestic abusers and offenders convicted of some violent or sexual crimes, prompting concerns about the safety of victims and the wider public.
At HMP Brixton in south London, prolific thief David Elliott said he intended to resume stealing now that he was back on the streets.
‘I’ve been in and out of jail all my life – I’ve got 360 convictions and an addiction to stealing,’ he said. ‘I’m gonna go stealing again… Whatever I get, whatever I get.’
Outside other prisons, released inmates smiled broadly and embraced girlfriends and relatives waiting at the gates.
‘Justice system, what justice system? Thank you Andy Burnham,’ one prisoner said as he left HMP Durham.
A second inmate, released from HMP Cardiff, echoed the message and said he wanted to tell the Prime Minister: ‘Thank you very much and don’t get me back here again bro.’
Wesley Austin, 33, who had been jailed for a drug offence, said his first night of freedom after leaving HMP Berwyn in Wrexham would be marked with ‘a German doner kebab’.
Not every prisoner welcomed the policy. Tom, 32, a burglar released from Cardiff Prison, described the early-release arrangement as ‘s***’.
‘I’d happily spend my time in there, I mean, I’ve been doing it for 17 years. I’ll probably be back in the next month or two,’ he told reporters.
‘It’s like a reset for me, this is. I get out, I take beer, drugs… Go back in, put a bit of weight of on, do it all again.’
The latest Labour early-release initiative follows an earlier scheme launched two years ago, under which more than 70,000 offenders were released from prison ahead of schedule.
The scenes prompted an intensifying political backlash, with critics warning that victims could bear the consequences.
Prisoners leaving HMP Durham smiled and raised their fists in the air
Two men grinned as they carried their belongings out of Durham prison
A woman waited to embrace a man leaving HMP Isis, a young offenders’ institution in south London
The pair hugged in front of waiting cameras
Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, said Labour’s scheme put the public at risk.
‘Today’s releases are an insult to victims, a danger to the public, and will only encourage more lawbreaking from criminals who know they have a ticket out of prison,’ he said.
‘Labour say they have no choice but to release prisoners early, but we know they don’t believe in prison. It is their decision to release vile criminals including abusers, historic child sex offenders and human traffickers – but it is the public who will pay the price.’
A man who said he had been released early from Wandsworth prison described himself as ‘very’ cheerful.
Giving his name only as John, he said he was meant to serve a six-month sentence for a ‘minor’ conviction but has been released after two months.
Asked if he was feeling cheerful he said: ‘Yeah, very.’ He told reporters he will ‘have a beer and get a fry up’.
Another man, who refused to give his name, said he has been released early after spending ‘eight days’ in prison for ‘breach of my conditional sentence’.
Asked if he thought it was right that people are being released early, he said: ‘Some people, yeah. There’s not enough space in the jails.’
Asked if he had anything to say to Mr Burnham, he said: ‘Thank you.’
Joe was jailed for common assault and spent six weeks at Wandsworth before being released this morning.
‘I suppose I’d like to thank Burnham,’ he said.
The 32-year-old added that if he ‘doesn’t stop drinking and doing gas’ then there’s a good chance he could end up back inside.
Criticising the latest wave of early releases, domestic abuse commissioner Dame Nicole Jacobs said survivors were ‘uprooting their lives’ because ‘they simply do not trust that sufficient safeguards are in place’.
She said: ‘As the first perpetrators start to be released, 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.
‘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.
‘I have heard from survivors who feel they have been treated as an afterthought throughout this process.
‘Many are 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.’
Dame Nicola called on Andy Burnham to take ‘urgent steps’ to improve victim safety.
The threat faced by victims was acknowledged by Labour MP Jess Phillips, who admitted she expects ‘huge recalls’ to prison of domestic abusers.
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The Government repeatedly flip-flopped over the release plans, which are designed to free up space in the overcrowded jails.
After a public outcry Mr Burnham was forced to exclude offenders convicted of rape, serious child sexual and grooming offences, and later expanded exclusions to those convicted of manslaughter and other ‘unlawful killing’ offences.
But Dame Nicole said many domestic abuse perpetrators remain eligible for early release.
The scheme was devised by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in her previous role as Justice Secretary.
Most prisoners currently due to serve 40 or 50 per cent of sentences handed down by the courts will be freed after serving 33 per cent.
As the scheme is rolled out in the coming months, criminals convicted of certain violent or sexual offences who were previously eligible for release two-thirds of the way through their sentence will instead be let out at the halfway stage.
A young man leaves HMP Leeds carrying a clear plastic bag full of trainers
One man leaving YOI Isis in south London was wearing a balaclava to hide his identity
Inmates chatted as they streamed out of Durham prison from arond 8.30am
Ministers have attempted to reassure victims that there would be thorough risk assessments of prisoners before release and there would be a ‘presumption’ that they would be electronically tagged on release.
However, tagging schemes are in disarray.
In July spending watchdogs warned the public were being put at risk by major problems with the electronic monitoring programme.
The National Audit Office found thousands of criminals ordered to take part in the schemes never even get a tag fitted.
Another watchdog report, published earlier this week, found almost half of electronic tags are not fitted on time, again putting victims at risk.
Labour’s previous early release scheme – allowing offenders out after serving 40 per cent of their sentences – has seen 70,066 criminals freed between its launch in September 2024 and the end of March.
It led to distasteful scenes at its launch when lags celebrated their freedom outside jails.
Some were collected by friends in expensive sports cars or popped bottles of bubbly, while others vowed to be lifelong Labour voters as a result of their early release.
The replacement scheme, coming into force tomorrow, offers even larger sentence reductions for many criminals and applies to a far wider range of criminals, including those convicted of sexual and serious violent offences.
Mr Burnham paused the programme over the summer and later announced that criminals convicted of rape, serious child sex offences and grooming would be excluded.
Then there was a further outcry, with the widow of murdered PC Andrew Harper blasting the scheme as ‘deplorable’.
Lissie Harper – who married the officer one month before he was dragged to his death by a car in 2019 – blasted Labour after it emerged that two of his killers would be eligible under the new scheme.
The PM changed the terms again to exclude those convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter.
The early release scheme was set out in Labour’s Sentencing Act which also contained separate measures which, from March this year, largely barred the courts from imposing prison sentences of 12 months or less.
Robert Dales, 36, who was sentenced in March to three years in prison for abusing his wife, Claire Milne. They are pictured together
Senior police chiefs have repeatedly warned the measures as a whole will lead to an increase in crime and cost forces £400million a year to deal with.
Today, one domestic abuse survivor expressed her fears that her ex-husband will pursue her after he is let out on licence.
Claire Milne was abused over a period of eight years by Robert Dales, 36, who was sentenced in March to three years in prison for controlling and coercive behaviour.
Ms Milne, who fled her home with her nine-week-old baby in April 2025, now fears for her life.
‘I am scared that he will come after me – I don’t want to die,’ she told the BBC.
‘I am not a silly woman. I know that I’ve been in a very high-risk domestic abuse relationship and I know what he’s capable of because I lived it.’
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.’