Criminals who reoffend will serve just one month behind bars as Labour scrambles to free up space in Britain’s overcrowded jails.
Shabana Mahmood said prisons are currently operating at 99 per cent capacity and the country risks a ‘total breakdown of the justice system’ if the issue is not addressed.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, the Justice Secretary said three new prisons will be built, starting this year, as part of a ‘record prison expansion’.
But she said it was not possible to ‘build our way out of the crisis’ and unveiled new rules that will see offenders serving sentences of between one and four years only returned to prison for a fixed 28-day period.
A standard recall currently results in offenders being taken back to prison for the remainder of their sentence, but this can be for shorter fixed-terms in some circumstances.
Ms Mahmood also suggested that a sentencing review currently being carried out by former Tory Justice Secretary David Gauke will call for overall prison sentences to be cut.
And she hinted at the introduction of a ‘Texas-style’ system that would see inmates freed early if they complete work, training or education in jail, and show good behaviour.
The moves will be seized upon by critics as the latest evidence of Labour’s ‘soft’ approach to justice.
Shabana Mahmood said prisons are currently operating at 99 per cent of their capacity and Britain risks a ‘total breakdown of the justice system’ if the issue is not addressed
Ms Mahmood said: ‘Today, I am announcing a measure that will target the recall population, which has more than doubled in seven years.
‘We will bring legislation in the coming weeks that means those serving sentences of between one and four years can only be returned to prison for a fixed 28-day period.
‘Some offenders will be excluded from this measure, including any offender who has been recalled for committing a serious further offence.
‘We also will exclude those who are subject to higher levels of risk management by multiple agencies where the police, prisons and probation services work together.’
The latest measures are aimed at dealing with the scale of the continuing crisis in prisons, as the latest weekly prison population in England and Wales stands at 88,087.
This is 434 below the last peak in the prison population of 88,521 inmates on September 6, recorded just before the Government began freeing thousands of prisoners early as part of efforts to curb jail overcrowding.
The fixed-term recall measures announced on Wednesday are expected to free up around 1,400 prison places, Ms Mahmood said.
Asked how many people would be released as a result of the measures, the Justice Secretary said: ‘So under the fixed-term recall measures that I’m announcing today, we believe they will create around 1,400 prison places.
Amy Rees, the MoJ’s interim permanent secretary, (left) told the press conference that prisons would ‘run out of prison places in just five months’ time’, if further measures were not taken
‘We believe that that number will allow us to get from November into spring of next year, as you will have seen on the slides earlier, we are on track to hit zero capacity within our prison estate by November, and this measure will tide us over until any changes from the sentencing review start to hit the system.
‘And look, I understand the concerns of victims groups and others, the very worst thing that could happen is that we hit zero in November, and as Amy and I have both described at that point, you see the breakdown of law and order in this country.
‘If we hit zero in November, then police cannot make arrests, courts cannot hold trials, and the whole system then collapses. So we cannot allow that to happen, and it is my job to make sure that that does not happen.’
Ms Mahmood said probation services would expand to help cover offenders released onto the streets, and blamed the Conservatives for the ‘shameful’ state of Britain’s prisons.
She said changes from a sentencing bill would be expected to start having an effect in April next year when asked if the measures would on the statute books by the autumn.
“We will legislate at pace. And as I described earlier, currently we’re on track to come down to zero capacity in November of this year.
“That’s why I’ve announced the measures on fixed term recall today, we would anticipate that any changes from a sentencing bill could start having an impact on April of next year, so that’s the timeline that we are working to.
“We’re moving very, very quickly, but it’s because we want to make sure we never have to do emergency releases again, and that we can get the system into sustainability as quickly as possible, and make sure we never run out of prison places again.”
Amy Rees, the MoJ’s interim permanent secretary, told today’s press conference that prisons would ‘run out of prison places in just five months’ time’, if further measures were not taken.
‘On our current trajectory, the prison population rises by 3,000, and now we expect to hit zero capacity, to entirely run out of prison places for adult men, in November of this year,’ she said today.
Early release measures have ‘only bought the service time’, Ms Rees said, including the Government’s decision to reduce early release to 40% of sentences.
The prison population is rising by 3,000 each year, ‘the equivalent of two large prions every single year’, Ms Rees claimed.
She added: ‘Even with these measures in place, we will run out of prison places in just five months time.’
The prison system has come close to activating Operation Early Dawn in recent weeks due to the rising population, Ms Rees said.
The emergency measure involves an operational assessment being made each morning and throughout the day by the Prison Service, courts and police on which defendants can be transferred from police cells and taken to courts to ensure there is a safe and secure location if a defendant is remanded to custody.
She continued: ‘If capacity gets even tighter, as an exceptional measure, we would activate Operation Early Dawn. This means we convene a team at 5.30am every day to track each individual potentially coming into custody so that we can make sure there will be an available space for them.
‘Early dawn was activated between August 9 to September 9 last year prior to the implementation of early releases.
‘It was also previously activated in October 2023, March 2024 and May 2024.
‘In recent weeks, we have come close to activating Early Dawn once again. If Operation Early Dawn is unable to manage the flow of prisoners, the situation becomes intolerable.
‘We would at this stage, see the managed breakdown of the criminal justice system.’
Labour has since refused to say how many criminals have been let out under its existing early scheme, which came into force on September 10.
On its first day there were sickening scenes of inmates celebrating outside prison gates after being freed, with some popping champagne corks and posing with luxury cars.
Criminals thanked Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and vowed to be ‘lifelong Labour voters’.
One vowed to ‘get lit’ – intoxicated – to celebrate his unexpected freedom, while others said they were looking forward to tucking into fast food from McDonald’s.
Some of those released committed new offences within hours of getting out of jail, while others were let out by mistake.
Jails in England and Wales were holding 88,087 inmates on Monday, with headroom of 1,355 places.
Ministry of Justice forecasts suggest jails will run out of space again early next year, despite the opening of a new 1,500-bed jail HMP Millsike, near York, a month ago.
The review is also expected to recommend discouraging judges and magistrates from imposing short jail terms of less than a year.
In March Ms Mahmood confirmed that reform of short jail terms alone ‘isn’t going to be enough’ to create space in the overcrowded prisons.
Former Tory justice secretary David Gauke has been carrying out a major review of sentencing for Labour
‘We are filling prison spaces as fast as we can build them, and we know already we cannot build our way out of this crisis,’ she said.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘This Government inherited a prison system in crisis, putting pressure on the entire justice system and ultimately putting the public at risk.
‘And the Prime Minister has repeatedly been clear that that is completely unacceptable and that is why, as soon as the Government came into office, we took immediate action to relieve this pressure and pledged to build 14,000 new prison places.
‘And our priority now is to put in place a long term strategy to ensure that no future government is ever left in this position again.’
He said the sentencing review would ensure ‘we always have prison places available for dangerous offenders and prisons aren’t so full that they are simply a breeding ground for more crime’.
Meanwhile the Prison Service is conducting a ‘snap review’ into the use of protective body armour for prison officers, and the use of tasers is being trialled in jails, after an attack on prison officers by Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi last month.
The number of assaults on staff in adult prisons in England and Wales per year has reached its highest level in a decade, according to data from the Ministry of Justice.
Today, the Prison Officers Association said two officers were injured in separate incidents at HMP Woodhill, where one of the officers was allegedly attacked by an inmate detained under the Terrorism Act 2008.
The union also reported a prison officer had a TV thrown at him and a female officer sustained a broken arm after a prisoner faked an epileptic fit at Gartree Prison.
POA general secretary Steve Gillan said: ‘Escalating levels of violence are out of control in the prison service in England and Wales.
‘We need action to protect prison officers before there is a fatality.’
