By Professor John Robertson

In the Guardian today, the above and:

Rishi Sunak’s government released more than 10,000 prisoners up to 70 days early, figures reveal, as the new justice secretary prepares to announce further emergency measures to ease another overcrowding crisis in jails.

Ministry of Justice figures show that 10,083 prisoners were allowed to walk free under the end of custody supervised licence (ECSL) scheme between October 2023 and June 2024 in England and Wales.

^{https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/12/over-10000-prisoners-freed-70-days-early-sunak-government}

There is no mention of criticism by opposition parties nor any estimate of how many the new Labour Government might now release.

From BBC Scotland on 8 July, 2024:

The current early release scheme involves prisoners with 180 days or less to serve from a sentence of under four years.

Between 500 and 550 inmates will be freed in four phases. The first scheduled release was on 26 June, and this will continue weekly until 18 July.

With 11 times the population, all things being equal (which they never are), England and Wales might have been expected to release around 6 000 but have released, so far, more than 10 000.

Also, of course, in the BBC Scotland report:

Lucy Adams investigates the impact of overcrowding, drugs and suicides on inmates and staff, and asks whether our crumbling prison estate can cope much longer.

A Scottish Conservative spokesperson called the move “another broken promise” to victims.

They said: “Nicola Sturgeon promised to end automatic early release for all criminals, but never fulfilled that pledge.

“Now the SNP want to release dangerous criminals who have served just two-thirds of their sentence which if enacted would pose a serious risk to public safety.”

Speaking on BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie said rehabilitation should take place in the community where possible.

“The reality is our prisons are overflowing, people are reoffending instead of us actually taking an approach that is rehabilitation based,” she said.

^{https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpe34xl8z17o#:~:text=The%20current%20early%20release%20scheme,continue%20weekly%20until%2018%20July.}

Not news, simply propaganda.