Prisons Overflow, 700 Inmates Released Early: What Is Happening in UK Prisons?

Inmates stepping out of prison gates have gained their freedom earlier than scheduled.

[Owen Hill / Early Release Inmate: I'm going to live on the outside now. I'm never coming back here. I really mean it.]

On October 1, local time, about 700 inmates were released all at once from prisons across England and Wales.

The British government implemented a new early release scheme to address the problem of prison overcrowding.

Under the new system, certain inmates can now be released after serving only one-third of their sentence in prison.

Previously, inmates had to spend 40% or half of their sentence behind bars depending on the crime, but this threshold has been moved up to one-third.

However, the sentence itself is not reduced to one-third.

Inmates will undergo intensive probation during the first part of their remaining sentence and must comply with designated conditions afterward.

Violating these conditions could send them back to prison.

Prisons in England and Wales currently house about 86,000 inmates, while the total capacity is around 89,000.

The government concluded that leaving the situation as it is could result in a lack of space even to lock up newly arrested criminals.

Starting with these 700 individuals, 4,500 more inmates are scheduled to be released earlier than usual by June of next year.

This could apply not only to thieves but also to some inmates convicted of violent crimes.

However, inmates convicted of rape, serious sexual offenses against children, and homicides other than murder will be excluded from the early release program.

Instead, the government stated that it would strengthen monitoring outside of prison.

[Alex Norris / UK Justice Minister: We've made significant investments in increasing personnel. We are utilizing electronic tags as well as alcohol monitoring devices, and placing various restrictions such as banning visits to football stadiums or nightlife districts.]

The government stated that it will make it a rule to attach electronic tags to all released prisoners.

This is to verify their locations, monitor alcohol consumption in certain cases, and prevent them from entering football stadiums, pubs, and clubs.

It also decided to increase the number of probation officers by 1,300.

However, leaving prison gates does not mean the end of the problem.

[Andrew Gaskin / Early Release Inmate: People are happy to get out early. But some people have nowhere to go. Even if they get out of here, they have nowhere to go, so they just commit crimes again and come back.]

This is why concerns are being raised that if probation and housing support fail to keep pace with the government sending inmates out of prison, it could rather lead to reoffending.

How to manage these individuals outside after releasing them from prison first has become a new challenge.

(Reported by Sim Yeong-gu | Video by Na Hong-hee | Graphics by Lee Jung-joo | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.