Victims’ groups and survivors have also raised concerns. Refuge, which supports survivors of domestic abuse, told the BBC last month that perpetrators of such abuse were among those being released.
Typically, those being released should expect to be electronically tagged and subject to other monitoring conditions for the second third of their sentence.
Once outside, they will be monitored by probation officers, who are responsible for trying to make sure that offenders take part in courses or other programmes to turn around their lives – and also that they keep to their licence conditions, which can include bans on entering certain areas and contacting victims.
The government has not yet published any figures for the rate of recall of prisoners to jails for breaching their licence conditions.
The most up to date statistics show that just 12,338 offenders were sent back to jail for breaching their terms between April and June. That was 12% higher than the year before but a decrease on the first three months of the year.
Rehabilitation experts say that the recalls are often more likely to be linked to the offender failing to keep to appointments or living at a specific address. Around a fifth of recalls are for a new offence.
Napo, the probation service union, has previously said the releases have put enormous strain on its members who are charged with monitoring the offenders in the community.
Its members have been balloted over recent weeks on potential strike action over pay and conditions – and the result of that poll is expected on Friday.
The government has offered probation officers a 5% pay rise by the Ministry of Justice, while it had demanded 12% as part of a plan to make up for loss of earnings caused by cuts from 2010.
The Ministry of Justice says the offer is fair and has been accepted by two other unions and is twinned with a £700m investment in probation to recruit 1,300 extra officers and the roll-out of AI tools to cut the workload of monitoring offenders.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has previously criticised the scheme, saying she was “worried about dangerous people being let out on the street when they haven’t served their sentence, haven’t been rehabilitated”.
An early release programme introduced by the Conservatives saw more than 10,000 prisoners freed early between October 2023 and September 2024.
