Tens of thousands of criminals could be freed early under emergency measure to stop prison overcrowding ‘timebomb’

TENS of thousands of criminals could be freed early under emergency measures set to be approved by Sir Keir Starmer within days.

Lags would be released after serving just 40 per cent of their sentence under the proposals to ease pressure on Britain’s bursting jails.

The prison estate is close to breaking point with only around 1,000 places left – meaning space could run out within weeks.

Currently prisoners are released halfway through their sentence on licence with strict probation terms.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is considering a menu of options to reduce this to either 45, 43 or even as low as 40 per cent of their sentence.

Any move to further reduce this would not include serious sexual and terror offenders and would come with further probation curbs. 

She is expected to make an emergency statement by the end of this week on the measures.

A government source said: “The last government left our prisons in crisis. They always chose to delay disaster by one more day and pursued a scorched earth policy on prisons, leaving this government to clean up their mess.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper yesterday also said there was “no quick fix” as she lashed out at the previous Tory government.

She said: “But I think it’s been totally irresponsible, the way the Conservatives have handled this for not just recent months, but in fact for years.

“It’s deeply, deeply damaging what they have done, and we are going to have to look at what it is we now inherit.”