Britain releases prisoners ahead of schedule

In Britain, 1.1 thousand more prisoners will be released as part of the government’s fight against prison overcrowding.

This is reported by the television channel ITV News.

This is the second group of early release under a program to reduce the proportion of the term that most convicts must serve from 50% to 40%.

The first round of release took place in mid-September, then 1.7 thousand prisoners were released early.

In early July, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the country has too many prisoners and not enough prisons.

The number of prisoners at that time amounted to 87 thousand people, and the Ministry of Justice of the country predicted that by the end of 2025 it will reach 99.3 thousand people.

At the same time, the projected capacity fell far short, with only 4,400 new places planned.

In the same month, Britain’s Justice Secretary announced the government’s decision to reduce the mandatory sentence to 40%.

After serving this proportion of the sentence, prisoners can be released early.

The early release scheme does not apply to prisoners convicted of sexual and domestic violence or terrorism.

Previously, as a general rule in Britain, most prisoners were released after half of their sentence.