Image source, PA

Hundreds of prisoners across England and Wales have been released early today, under a new scheme designed to free up prison space.

They are being released after the Sentencing Act - a piece of legislation passed earlier this year - came into force today.

This is just the first stage of the early release scheme, and more people are due to be released in phases until next summer. You can find a timeline here.

One woman says she is "fearing for her life" after being told her ex-husband is due to be released early later this year.

Released prisoners have described overcrowding, while one tells the BBC he didn't know he was getting out until today.

For some, there is nowhere to go after they're released, data analysed by BBC Verify shows that one in seven prisoners were sleeping rough last year after their release.

We're ending our live coverage for today, but you can read more in our news story here.

Claire Ellison
Society reporter

A former “high risk” prisoner sentenced two years ago for harassment with fear of violence against an ex-partner tells the BBC that prisons have become a lot more violent.

He claims to have seen some horrific attacks and felt prison officers had "given up".

"They are very much run by the prisoners, not by the prison officers," he says, adding that it was difficult to get basic items such as a mattress, a plate, or a cup.

The former inmate believes there are systemic failures within the prison and probation services, and that more needs to be done to help ex-offenders.

"I spent over 23 months in custody and did absolutely nothing," he says. "There were no courses. Mental health services were appalling. There was no support. I was suicidal at some points", he says.

His probation officer also allegedly told him her workload is going to treble once early release starts.

Image source, Getty Images

Around 700 prisoners have been released early today under the new early release scheme. Here's some of those have told the BBC throughout the day:

"I didn't have a clue I was getting out," said Benjamin Stewart. The 46-year-old was only informed he was being let out of HMP Birmingham early this morning.

What's it like inside? Jake Sykes, 33, said Lincoln prison is "bad" due to overcrowding. "It's full of cockroaches, rats. It's disgusting in there, filthy."

To celebrate his release, Michael Bogle is getting "some kebabs" and plans to avoid prison after being locked up for shoplifting. He's going to be fitted with an electronic tag. He says he supports the scheme.

But once you leave, there is "not much support", Owen Hill said upon leaving HMP Humber.

According to James Baker, who was leaving HMP Wealstun, some offenders "will just come straight back".

“Stop sending people to prison in the first place. Help them before they get there,” argued David, 50, outside of HMP Brixton after being released for stealing.

Lucy Gilder
Live reporter

Charities have raised concerns that domestic abuse survivors won't be adequately protected from their perpetrators after they're released early from prison.

"Although perpetrators may be released with licence conditions, including electronic tagging and restriction zones, we know that license conditions are frequently breached by perpetrators", says Alice Russell-Harris of Refuge.

"Without proper monitoring and enforcement, Refuge is deeply concerned that newly released perpetrators will be able to continue their campaign of abuse once out of prison".

It's a view shared by Women's Aid, which reports that some domestic abuse survivors have been forced to go into refuges as they prepare for their perpetrators to be released.

"Trust in the criminal justice system is incredibly low and this will cause further damage, meaning that even greater numbers of women and children may be left without protection", says chief executive Farah Nazeer.

A woman whose ex-partner was jailed for attacking and controlling her has warned "there will be a death" if domestic abusers are released from prison early.

Helen Duncanson from North Yorkshire says she is suffering from "night terrors and panic" after being told her abuser could be eligible for early release.

In January, Michael Boyes, 40, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. But Helen has been told he could be freed in March 2027 after serving only 14 months.

You can read more about Helen's story here.

Ian Lawrence, from the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo), says many people on the early release scheme have no fixed address.

He tells the BBC this means that it hampers the level of supervision that is needed.

Lawrence says he understands concerns from victim support groups around those released, but adds not everybody represents a "threat to the public".

"There has to be a bit of context here," he says, but adds he hopes the measures the government has announced will have an impact.

But on some measures, such as increasing probation staff, he says he's "heard it all before".

These (new) measures don't discuss the numbers of those who leave the service through "burnout", young staff who leave due to the heavy workload, or the "crisis in workloads generally", he says.

"There's many, many problems out there."

Angus Cochrane
BBC Scotland senior political reporter

The early release scheme is only being rolled out in England and Wales, but the issue of overcrowding and court backlogs plagues Scotland too.

Since June 2024, more than 1,400 prisoners in Scotland have been freed early in three waves of emergency releases.

Despite these efforts, Scotland's prison population reached a historic high of 8,603 in May.

That same month, the Scottish government began allowing some short-term prisoners - excluding those convicted of sexual offences and domestic abuse - to be automatically released after serving 30% of their sentence, down from 50% a couple of years ago.

However, government analysis found that such efforts have had a “minimal” impact on the prison population, warning that if current trends continue then the number of inmates could rise to between 8,100 and 9,150 by March 2027.

Holyrood ministers have been considering more radical measures. These include encouraging judges not to issue jail terms of less than two years - up from the current 12 months.

Phil Mackie
Reporting from HMP Birmingham

Benjamin Stewart, from Northfield, Birmingham, said he was imprisoned at HMP Birmingham for 17 months for possession of a bladed article.

The 46-year-old said he had already served seven months on remand and was sentenced last week, adding he expected to be released in a few weeks' time.

He told us he didn’t know he was being released until a knock on his cell door this morning.

“I didn’t have a clue I was getting out," he said.

How many prisoners are homeless after release?published at 14:39 BST

14:39 BST

By Tom Edgington

In the year from April 2025 to March 2026, nearly one in seven (15%) prisoners were sleeping rough following their release from custody, according to the most recent government figures.

The data covers all released prisoners, not specifically those released early.

Separate figures from the social justice charity Nacro suggest that half of all rough sleepers in England have previously spent time in prison.

The House of Lords Library says homelessness for ex-prisoners can exacerbate factors such as unemployment, relationship breakdown and mental health - issues that are associated with increased reoffending rates.

Nacro chief executive Enver Solomon says “leaving prison homeless can put people on a path back into custody” and that prison, probation and community services need to work closely together to solve the problem.

In the next few minutes, we'll be hearing from a panel of experts discussing the early release scheme.

Joining presenter Pria Rai will be Ian Lawrence from the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo), the Prison Reform Trust's Mark Day and the general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, Steve Gillam.

The programme will also include a pre-recorded interview with domestic abuse commissioner Dame Nicole Jacobs.

You can see what they have to say by pressing watch live above.

Jade Thompson
Society reporter

Sara Crane, vice president of the Police Superintendents' Association, has criticised the government for not providing additional funding to meet the demands created by the early release scheme.

Policing leaders estimate the cost will equate to around £480m in police time, with Crane calling for an independent review on the policy's impact.

Crane expects additional demand from monitoring offenders, licence breaches, recalls, safeguarding concerns and further offending.

"Every hour spent dealing with the consequence of this scheme is an hour that cannot be spent tackling neighbourhood crime, protecting vulnerable people or supporting victims,” she says.

Crane adds communities are being failed by the "dangerous" underfunding of the criminal justice system.

Prisoner recalls adding pressure to the systempublished at 14:00 BST

14:00 BST

By Harriet Agerholm and Tom Edgington

One factor putting pressure on prisons in England and Wales is the rise in the number of offenders released on licence being recalled to prison.

The latest Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures show there were 51,419 licence recalls in the year ending March 2026, up from 40,259 in the previous year - a 28% increase.

Although recalls in the period between January to March were slightly lower than the previous three-month period, external, they remain well above historical levels.

The most common reason provided was "non-compliance" with licence conditions, with 9,683 recalls in this period, followed by 5,025 who "failed to keep in touch" with a supervising officer or probation officer.

There were 2,891 recalls because an offender faced further charges, a 23% rise on the same three-month period last year. More than one reason can be recorded against each recall.

You can read more about the increase in prison recalls here.

Image source, PA Media

A "huge amount" of work needs to be done to make domestic abuse victims feel safe following the rollout of the early prisoner release scheme, Jess Phillips says.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's World at One programme, the Labour MP and former minister for safeguarding under Keir Starmer, says she is "not yet confident" that all the best systems have been implemented to make sure victims are "completely safe".

"I've dealt with a number of different cases over the last few weeks of people still not being sure of the day of the release of their perpetrator," she says.

Phillips also says she has heard of women who are suicidal because they are worried about their safety, adding that these women are "still feeling as if the system acts against them".

There is still "huge amounts of work to be done to make sure that victims are and feel safe and frankly are informed better", she adds.

If you have been affected by this story or would like support then you can find organisations which offer help and information at BBC Action Line.

Jerome Banton is not part of the early release scheme but is walking out of Nottingham Prison today after serving his sentence.

He says he went to prison after breaching the conditions of two suspended sentences for theft, criminal damage, being drunk and disorderly and fighting in Nottingham city centre.

He was homeless at the time but now has somewhere to live and says he has learnt since then.

Asked about the early release scheme, Jerome says: "All the [inmates] on my wing seem to be quite happy about it. They don't think they deserve to be in there."

Banton adds that prison overcrowding has meant inmates are being placed in cells with more "dangerous" prisoners in a bid to find more space.

"You can tell they're busy,” he continues. “They haven't got enough money, they haven't got staff all the time."

Wedaeli Chibelushi
Live page reporter

The majority of prisoners released early aren't dangerous - they simply "want to get on with their lives", a man who was freed as part of a previous early release scheme says.

Evan, who was released in 2024 after serving just over half of his eight-year sentence, tells me he benefitted from being let out early, and has "managed to do some really incredible things" since.

"I went to prison at a very young age having grown up in foster care... I'd never really lived in the adult world," Evan, who is now 29, says.

He doesn't want me to detail the exact nature of his crime but says he was able to build a stable life for himself after being released. Evan now works for a criminal justice charity.

He says that looking back, he didn't receive enough support from probation services after being released. However, officers "did the best with the resources they had", he adds.

Evan tells me he has "been a victim of crime as much as a perpetrator" and therefore empathises with victims who want lengthy prison sentences for those who've harmed them.

But "long term that's not a tactic that works and there is evidence showing that", he says.

Jake Sykes, 33, from Nottingham, says he is being released under the early release scheme today after being sentenced to 16 weeks in prison for shoplifting.

He says overcrowding inside Lincoln prison is "bad" and people are sharing cells with people who should not be sharing cells.

“It's really bad,” Sykes says. “It's full of cockroaches, rats. It's disgusting in there, filthy."

Asked if there is any support for him outside of prison, he says: "I think that's the biggest problem about the system. The support is there whilst you're there (prison), so you're secure, you feel safe there and then when you get out there's nothing."

He says there are "quite a lot of conditions" for those being released early, and he says expects his electronic tag to be fitted this afternoon.

"Everyone's got a tag, everyone's got tracking, everyone's got a curfew, you can't go to pubs."

Jake says he will be going back to Nottingham and "staying off the drink", adding: "I've ruined my life, I've let a lot of people down with drinking".

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

The early release scheme has been two years in planning and was publicly debated in Parliament.

When Labour came to office in 2024, it launched the emergency scheme to release some offenders at the 40% mark of their sentence to prevent jails running out of cells that summer.

It said it would come back with a full scheme to fundamentally change sentencing to end the pressures and to put more cash into rehabilitation.

The Sentencing Act 2026 was the final plan and basically means many fixed-term offenders will spend two-thirds of their sentence being intensively supervised in the community (i.e. being released after a third of their sentence), rather than half.

The scheme excludes life sentence prisoners and others who judges concluded were particularly dangerous.

When it was being debated in Parliament, the Conservatives argued that it should exclude rapists, among others. The Burnham government decided to do so - and many sexual offenders are now excluded, along with those convicted of manslaughter.

Claire Ellison & Levi Jouavel
Reporting from HMP Wandsworth

An early-released prisoner at HMP Wandsworth, who declined to give his name, tells us the facility is so crowded "even the rats are complaining".

The man says he was sentenced for "taking things without paying for them".

Speaking positively about the early release scheme, he says it’ll "save taxpayers money".

He tells reporters his plans are to go back to work in construction and to "be good to himself".

How much pressure are prisons under?published at 12:27 BST

12:27 BST

By Tom Edgington

The government says prisoners need to be released early in order to prevent a capacity crisis.

Prisons are almost full, data from the Ministry of Justice shows.

As of 2, external8 September, external, there were , external87,499, external, externalp, externaleople , externalbeing held in prisons in England and Wales.

That’s 98% of their operational capacity and only slightly down from a peak of 99% in summer 2024.

Longer sentences and more recalls of released prisoners have contributed to the rising population.

A review into prisons, launched by the government, external, says the system faces significant and long-standing pressures. It states: “Population growth, an ageing estate, violence, self-harm, evolving security threats and workforce challenges have combined to place increasing strain on the system.”

Without the early release scheme, the government says prisoner numbers will outstrip capacity.

Image source, Getty Images

What is the policy?

Roughly 70,000 offenders will be eligible for the permanent scheme.

It will see them released early before their whole sentence is complete.

Today's release is the first of 10 that will take place until June 2027.

Who is eligible?

Offenders serving standard fixed sentences, who were due to be released after 50% of their term, will leave prison after 33%

More serious offenders on fixed terms, who would have been released at 66% of their sentence, will be released after 50% is served.

It won't apply to people guilty of murder, rape, serious child sex and other grooming offences, and manslaughter.

Why is it needed?

Prisons across England and Wales are almost full. At the rate cells are being occupied, there would be no spare cells by Christmas 2026.

What do critics say?

Some of those released have committed domestic abuse offences. London Victims' Commissioner Andrea Simon said this is a "genuinely terrifying prospect for their victims".

Chief Inspector of Probation Martin Jones criticised the electronic tagging system, which tracks offenders, saying it had not "kept pace" and could create "a false sense of assurance".

"We’re worried about the number of people we’re releasing who are going to be recalled," a prison governor told the BBC.