By Thomas Godfrey, News Reporter
At 8.06am the first prisoner was released from HMP Isis.
The man, who refused to talk, wore a white T-shirt, blue jeans and carried a blue bag.
Asked if he would give his name, the man said: “No, I apologise.”
He was greeted by a pal and driven away in a waiting black car.
By Thomas Godfrey, News Reporter
Good morning from outside HMP Isis in Woolwich, East London, where, rather strangely, the Met Police have turned up.
There are five cops but only two willing to get out of their van and brave the morning chill. I don’t blame them.
This is a Category C prison though it is on the same site as Category B Tameside and maximum-security Category A Belmash, though it is understood nobody at the latter is set to be released today.
There are no sign of any releases yet though a few expectant friends and relatives have massed outside as staff filter into the jail to start their shift.
By Julia Atherley, Home Affairs Correspondent
HUNDREDS of prisoners released early today will be left homeless and some will go on to commit serious offences, the chief inspector of the probation service has warned.
Independent Government advisor Martin Jones said there is a “certainty” that inmates will reoffend after being let out as part of Labour’s early release scheme.
Around 1,700 prisoners across the country are being freed 40 per cent of the way through their sentences rather than halfway, including anyone jailed for under four years for violence, burglars and thieves.
The policy excludes sex offenders, terrorists and people convicted of domestic offences such as stalking or coercive control - but charities have warned some abusers could still get released.
Martin Jones, who was previously chief executive of the Parole Board, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “There’s been a huge amount of pressure on the probation service over the last eight weeks. Certainly the timetable has not been as good as people would have liked.
“I would just like to pay tribute to the work of the front line workers on the probation side who have been doing a huge amount of work to ensure that they are as ready as they can be, but I fear there will be pinch points over the next few days and weeks, particularly for example over accommodation and ensuring probation officers have what they need to manage those cases.
“If you look at the numbers, in any given period one in seven people being released from prison are homeless. What you are seeing this week is nearly 2,000 people being released - that’s twice the ordinary number that would be released in any given week.
“That’s placing significant pressure on the probation service and the people providing accommodation underpinning that.”
The Ministry of Justice is providing accommodation for those who would be homeless for up to 12 weeks after their release, but it is feared some will slip through the net.
Jones added: “There are three different risks here, the first risk, and I think the one that’s almost bound to happen, is that things will go wrong in the community and within days or weeks some of those people will end up being sent back to prison because they’ve breached the terms of their licence, they haven’t reoffended.
“There is also, I think, a certainty that some will reoffend. The numbers are that about a third of prisoners released from prison will have been proven to have committed another offence within a year.
“Then of course there’s a small risk that some of those offences will be serious. While rare, that risk cannot be eliminated.”
As of yesterday there were only a few hundred spaces left in the prison estate, he revealed.
Charlie Taylor, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, has also warned that it is “certainly going to be a risky time” as an already overstretched probation service takes on more dangerous cases.
He said yesterday: “I think it is inevitable when you let out so many prisoners on the same day, where the preparation period has been squeezed into a shorter time, it inevitably increases the risk of further offences in the future.”
The early release scheme, known as SDS 40, was originally suggested by former Tory Justice Secretary Alex Chalk to ease pressures in prisons which are almost at breaking point.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said that Sir Keir Starmer’s Government will “tackle the crisis head-on” and said that the mass early releases are “to prevent a total collapse of our criminal justice system that would leave the public less safe”.
She said: “If we had not acted when we came into office, there was a real risk that the courts would have been forced to delay sending offenders to jail and police left unable to arrest dangerous criminals.
“This is a temporary measure, giving us time to set about long-term change in the prison system – building the prisons we need and driving down re-offending.”