UK Early Release Scheme to Free 5,000 Prisoners, Excluding Rapists and Child Sex Offenders

Andy Burnham has announced that thousands of prisoners, including violent offenders, domestic abusers and some killers, will be eligible for early release to ease overcrowding in Britain's jails, while around 1,000 rapists and serious child sex offenders remain exempt. The scheme, paused last month after public backlash, will see about 5,000 prisoners convicted of other offences released. Among those eligible are two of the killers of police constable Andrew Harper, who died in Berkshire in 2019. Justice minister Alex Norris apologised to Harper's family on Tuesday, as Burnham said he wished he could have gone further but that it would risk the prison system collapsing.

Norris told Sky News that failing to release prisoners could mean places run out by October. Prisons face pressure from an 8 per cent rise in immediate jail sentences in the year to March, with 89,200 people jailed, the highest in eight years. Average custodial sentences have risen from 16.7 months in 2017 to 20.1 months this year. The prison population in England and Wales was 85,858 in June, near the 89,120 operational capacity, with 51 of 120 prisons overcrowded.