Prisons Overcrowded, 700 Inmates Released Early... What's Happening in UK Prisons?

Inmates stepping out of prison gates, gaining freedom earlier than scheduled.

[Owen Hill / Early Releasee: I'm going to live outside now. I'm never coming back here. Truly.]

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

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

Under the new scheme, some inmates can now be released after serving only one-third of their sentenced term in prison.

Previously, inmates had to serve 40 percent or half of their sentence in prison depending on the crime, but this point has been brought forward to one-third.

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

Inmates will receive intensive probation during the early part of their remaining sentence and must subsequently comply with established conditions.

Violating the conditions can result in re-imprisonment.

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

The government determined that leaving the situation as it is could lead to a shortage of space even for detaining newly arrested criminals.

Starting with these 700 inmates, 4,500 more are scheduled to leave prison earlier than before by June of next year.

The targets can include not only thieves but also inmates convicted of certain violent crimes.

However, inmates who committed rape, serious child sex offenses, and homicides other than murder are excluded from the early release program.

The government stated instead that it will strengthen monitoring outside of prisons.

[Alex Norris / UK Minister: We have made significant investments in increasing personnel. We are utilizing electronic tags as well as alcohol monitoring devices, and implementing various restrictive measures such as prohibiting visits to soccer stadiums or nightlife districts.]

The government stated that it will make putting electronic tags on all released inmates a rule.

This means verifying locations, monitoring alcohol consumption in some cases, and preventing them from visiting soccer stadiums, bars, and clubs.

It was also decided to increase probation officers by 1,300.

However, problems do not end just by walking out of prison gates.

[Andrew Gaskin / Early Releasee: People are happy to get out early. But there are people who have nowhere to go. Even after coming out from here, since there is nowhere to go, 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 while the government sends 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 Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.