Labour’s “shameful” prison early release scheme risks leaving victims “living in fear” as thousands of inmates begin leaving jail on Thursday, the domestic abuse commissioner has warned.
Dame Nicole Jacobs said survivors of abuse were being forced to “uproot their lives” because they did not believe adequate safeguards had been put in place.
Around 700 offenders serving sentences of up to 19 months are due to be released across England and Wales from Thursday morning.
The first phase of the scheme is expected to free more than 4,500 prisoners by June.
The Labour government’s latest early release programme follows an earlier scheme introduced two years ago, under which more than 70,000 prisoners were released before completing their sentences.
Dame Nicole said: “As the first perpetrators begin to leave prison, survivors across the country will be looking over their shoulders and living in fear because the Government and the criminal justice system have failed to protect them.
“It is frankly shameful that, as this scheme begins—despite ministers having had months to prepare—I still have no assurance that the risks posed by dangerous perpetrators have 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 the process.
Prisoners leave HMP Brixton in south London two years ago as Labour’s first early release scheme was launched
More than 1,700 prisoners were released early on the first day of Labour’s previous scheme in September 2024, including inmates from HMP Liverpool, pictured
“Many are now having to make their own arrangements to stay safe, including uprooting their lives, because they simply do not trust that sufficient safeguards are in place to manage their abuser safely in the community.”
She added: “Ultimately, we cannot ignore the fact that the early release scheme has caused untold damage to victims’ confidence in the justice system.
“That is particularly troubling when survivors may now face a longer wait for justice than the time their perpetrator spends behind bars.”
She urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham and the Labour government to take “urgent steps” to strengthen protections for victims.
The Government has repeatedly changed position on the plans, which are intended to create capacity in overcrowded prisons.
Following a public backlash, Mr Burnham was forced to exclude offenders convicted of rape, serious child sexual offences and grooming offences. The exclusions were later widened to include those convicted of manslaughter and other offences involving “unlawful killing”.
However, Dame Nicole warned that many perpetrators of domestic abuse will still qualify for early release.
The latest prison release scheme was drawn up by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood while she was serving as Justice Secretary.
Under the changes, most prisoners who would normally serve 40 or 50 per cent of a court-imposed sentence will be released after completing 33 per cent.
As the policy is introduced over the coming months, offenders convicted of certain violent or sexual crimes who were previously eligible for release after serving two-thirds of their sentence will instead be freed at the halfway point.
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 electronic tagging.
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It found criminals ordered to take part in electronic monitoring schemes never even get a tag fitted.
In its report the National Audit Office (NAO) also highlighted concerns over whether tagging could be ‘safely scaled up’ to replace jail sentences.
The NAO’s report said: ‘HM Prisons and Probation Service is continuing to scale the service while key elements are not yet working effectively, leading the service to operate beyond its stated risk appetite and tolerance levels.
‘This increases the risk of poor performance and threats to public protection escalating as demand grows.’
More than 5,400 criminals supposed to have been tagged by the end of March had not been fitted with the devices, it emerged.
Another watchdog report, published earlier this week, found that almost half of electronic tags are not fitted on time, putting victims at risk.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation said some criminals were waiting up to five months to be tagged, leading to repeated breaches of court and prison orders.
And in a further development, a joint report by the probation and police inspectorates warned that dangerous stalkers were walking the streets despite breaching their electronic tagging orders more than 30 times.
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.
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 for early release under the new scheme.
Lissie Harper, the widow of PC Andrew Harper, condemned Labour’s early release plans this summer, leading PM Andy Burnham to revise the scheme a second time
The PM changed the terms of the scheme again to exclude those convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter.
The previous early release programme 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.
Ministry of Justice figures have already suggested the scheme may have played a role in a rise in reoffending rates.
The proven reoffending rate rose to 29.9 per cent for the period July to September 2024, up 1.9 per cent on the same period the previous year – covering about three weeks after prison early releases began under Labour’s first scheme.
An MoJ document said ‘various policy changes’ including early release ‘may have impacts upon … reoffending rates’.
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.
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.