Prison early release scheme to continue

The number of early releases between 17 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 was 10,083

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Early release

End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL)

The Ministry of Justice today (12 July 2024) published basic data on the total number of people released under the ECSL (End of Custody Supervised Licence), which was announced by the Lord Chancellor on 16 Oct 2023 and which also allows certain determinate sentenced prisoners to be released prior to their Conditional Release Date.

From the start of its use, prisoners in certain prisons could be released a maximum of 18 days prior to their Conditional Release Date. This was increased to a maximum of 35 days on 8 March 2024 and a maximum of 70 days on 23 May 2024. ECSL was also iteratively rolled out to a larger number of male prisons, as well as being active in some prisons within the female estate from 5 March 2024 to 14 May 2024, during which time female prisoners could be released a maximum of 18 days prior to their Conditional Release Date.

The number of ECSL releases between 17 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 was 10,083.

Prison capacity

The MoJ also published today an ad hoc statistical release on the Adult Male Prison Population and Capacity Release. This document is obviously intended to give the background for the new Government’s strategy for managing the prison population crisis. The headline figures are:

There were 708 places remaining in the adult male prison estate on 8 July 2024.
Since the start of 2023 the average occupancy rate in the adult male estate has routinely been higher than 99% (60 out of 69 weeks with recorded data).
The adult male prison population has increased by around 60 per week on average.
The End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) scheme was introduced in October 2023. Since its implementation, the population of the adult male estate has been suppressed by ECSL releases.

The report contains a table showing the population, operational capacity, headroom (i.e., unfilled vacancies) and occupancy rate of all adult male prisons as at each Monday from January 2023 to Monday 8 July 2024.

There were 1,449 places remaining in the adult male estate on 9 January 2023, this has decreased to 708 places on 8 July 2024. Over this period the population of the adult male estate increased by around 60 per week on average. This is based on the total change in the adult male prison population over this period, divided by the number of weeks.

Below I have reproduced the part of that table relating to 2024 (the missing weeks are ones where there was a Bank Holiday on the Monday and data was not available).

Early release to continue

The new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced today that the Government will continue with the early release scheme which she said was “the only way to avert disaster”, arguing that if prisons were to run out of places, courts would be forced to delay jailing offenders and police unable to arrest dangerous criminals – a crisis that would leave the public at risk.

“If we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system. And a total breakdown of law and order,”

she said at a press conference at HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire.

Beginning in September, the government will temporarily reduce the proportion of certain custodial sentences served in prison from 50% to 40% in England and Wales, and claims it will implement safeguards and exemptions to keep the public safe and clear release plans to manage them safely in the community.

Sentences for serious violent offences of four years or more and sex offences will be automatically excluded. In a distinction from the end of custody supervised licence scheme (ECSL), the early release of offenders in prison for domestic abuse-connected crimes will also be excluded. This will include:

Stalking offences.

Controlling or coercive behaviours in an intimate or family relationship.

Non-fatal strangulation and suffocation.

Breach of restraining order, non-molestation order, and domestic abuse protection order.

The new release scheme is expected to allow several thousand prisoners to leave early this year, starting in September although releases will be staggered. In acknowledging the pressure that these releases will place on the probation service, Ms Mahmood also committed to recruiting 1,000 new trainee probation officers by March next year.

Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the header image in this post. You can see Andy’s work here