The first prisoners to be freed under the government’s early release scheme were spotted strolling out of jail this morning.
With some doing rock ‘n roll hand signs with a smile and others hiding their faces in hoodies, around 1,750 prisoners in England and Wales will be released today.
Most will have served less than half their sentences, raising concerns over reoffending.
A group of inmates even popped champagne corks when they walked free from a jail in Nottingham.
One now-former inmate of HMP Wandsworth told LBC that it ‘feels good’ to be free and are heading straight to McDonald’s.
Governors are unlocking the cell doors on top of the roughly 1,000 prisoners normally freed each week to cut overcrowding.
Outside HMP Bristol, prisoners were milling about while holding belongings in Horfield where an estimated 19 are being freed today.
One drug dealer, Djaber Benallaoua, 20, told the MailOnline he’s now a ‘lifelong Labour voter’.
Last week prisons reached record highs of more than 88,500 – this means nearly all jails were at capacity. Jail cells for some 1,000 people have been opened in the last few weeks.
Today’s releases are part of an emergency plan announced in July which will ee offenders serving sentences of fewer than five years released on licence after having spent 40% of their term in jail, rather than the usual 50%.
The goal is to free up about 5,500 prison beds as the hundreds of rioters arrested begin to appear in court and face jail.
All sex offenders and domestic abusers, along with violent offenders with a minimum four-year term are excluded from the scheme.
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said the government had ‘no choice’ but to free some inmates early amid overcrowding.
‘The bath was in danger of overflowing, and they either had to turn the taps off or they had to let some water out,’ he said.
‘It’s inevitable that some of these prisoners will get recalled to custody and it’s inevitable that some of them will go out homeless.’
Even prisoners have questioned the scheme, however. Among them was Shane Devlin, 36, who was released a month early after serving a year behind bars for actual bodily harm.
‘All they’re going to do is put the people from the riots in. They’re just going to empty it out and fill it up with new people,’ he told The Sun.
‘Plus most people reoffend so they’ll be straight back in.’
About a quarter of offenders re-offend, according to official figures.
Inmates walking out of prisons come on the same day the prison’s watchdog issued a scathing report that found high levels of violence inside prison walls.
‘Many prisoners in these jails were trapped in a cycle of boredom, frustration and poor behaviour, which fuelled the demand for drugs and increased violence, debt and self-harm,’ HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales said.
‘This was often underpinned by poor relationships with staff, a failure to establish or reinforce the rules, and far too little purposeful activity.’
Prison Reform Trust (PRT) said that inmates spend 23 hours a day ‘sharing overcrowded cells’ rather than taking part in rehabilitation programmes like education, training and work.
‘We cannot continue to warehouse people in these conditions and expect that things will be better when they’re released,’ the charity said.
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