UK to release thousands of prisoners due to overcrowding

LONDON: Thousands of prisoners are to be released early from September in order to prevent the “collapse” of the prisons system, the UK´s new justice minister announced on Friday.

Shabaana Mahmooud said failure to do so risked the “total breakdown of law and order”, with just 700 places left for men, and jails operating at 99 percent capacity since 2023.

England and Wales have the highest per capita prison population in Western Europe.

The chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, said this week that urgent action was required, as prisons were at “breaking point”.

The release initiative would not apply to violent offenders serving more than four years, sex offenders and those in prison for domestic abuse offences as well as those on life sentences.

Mahmood, appointed last week after Labour´s general election win, warned in dramatic language that if prisons ran out of cell space, there could be “van-loads of dangerous people circling the country with nowhere to go”.

“With officers unable to act, criminals could do whatever they want, without consequence. We could see looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight,” she said in a speech at a prison.

“In short, if we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system.”

Mahmood accused the previous Conservative government of a “dereliction of duty” regarding the system.