About 1,000 fewer prisoners to get early release as Burnham tightens rules

About 1,000 fewer prisoners will be released early in England and Wales after an intervention by the prime minister to exclude those convicted of rape, serious child sexual offences and grooming from the scheme. The Guardian reports that the justice secretary, Alex Norris, said 5,000 prisoners would now be released over 10 months from October, down from the government's original plan for 6,000 from September.

The change followed pressure from MPs, victims, campaigners and frontline prison officers concerned about the impact of early release. Norris told Sky News he would have liked to go further but that doing so would have caused the prison system to break down, and he acknowledged the plans had created harm for grieving families, including relatives of PC Andrew Harper, the officer killed in 2019 whose killers remain eligible for release.

The episode highlights the strain on Britain's prisons, where overcrowding has pushed successive governments toward release schemes that weigh public safety against the system's capacity. The government says sentencing changes will provide long-term security for prison capacity and that it should not need further emergency release schemes.