First prisoners are freed beneath controversial early launch scheme

The first prisoners to be freed under Labour’s controversial early release scheme have walked out of jails this morning.

Inmates, including some violent criminals, are being released in a bid to tackle prison overcrowding despite warnings that a third of those set free will reoffend.

As the sun rose in London today, the first inmate to be released from HMP Isis, Category C young offenders institution, walked out with some being greeted by family members.

Around 1,700 inmates are being freed on Tuesday, including domestic abusers, drug dealers and other violent criminals, sparking fears of spiralling gang violence, homelessness and terror for victims.

More than 5,000 are set to set loose in total over the next six weeks, with everyone eligible for release apart from violent criminals jailed for more than four years eligible for early release.

Martin Jones, the chief inspector of probation, says that despite the good intentions of dealing with the crisis facing the criminal justice system, it is a ‘certainty’ some will go on to commit more crimes.

And the chief inspector of prison, Charlie Taylor, also expressed his misgivings that  the overcrowding of jails had not been conducive to making them ‘less likely to reoffend when they come out’ and that actually releasing them was ‘risky’.

One prisoner who was released today told MailOnline he had no intention of being send back to prison.

Calvin Foster had been locked up in HMP Isis in Thamesmead, south east London, after being handed a 25-month sentence for conspiracy to commit robbery.

The 25-year-old mechanic was given his freedom just before 8.30am this morning – one day before his original release date.

He told MailOnline: ‘It’s jokes, my actual release date was tomorrow. It’s one day earlier, but I’ll take it. It’s sweet, isn’t it.

‘I didn’t find out I was being released early until I got my papers through a few days ago.

‘I kept my head down inside, got on with my stuff. I kept myself to myself – didn’t get in with any gangs or nothing.

‘I’m a good boy now. I’m going to see my girlfriend, see my mates, and just chill and work. I ain’t going back in there (prison).’

Another young man who declined to talk on his release said ‘no, I apologise’ before embracing a family member and getting into a waiting car.

Charlie Taylor, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, has said the government has ‘no choice but to do something’ as ‘the bath was in danger of overflowing, and they either had to turn the taps off or they had to let some water out’.

However, he told Sky News this morning: ‘It’s a risky time with so many prisoners coming out at the same time. Normally, there are about 1,000 prisoners coming out a week. 

‘Most of those 1,000 prisoners will still come out this week. 

‘But on top of that, we’ve got 1,700 other prisoners, and then in October, we have another tranche of around 2,000 coming out as well, inevitably, that puts some risks into local communities and greater strain on already stretched probation services.’

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘It’s inevitable that some of these prisoners will get recalled to custody and it’s inevitable that some of them will go out homeless.

‘If people are coming out, they’re not properly prepared, and they’re homeless, then what we’ll see is the danger that they’ll commit more offences, or that they breach their bail conditions, in which case they’ll end up back inside again.’

His claim that some inmates would reoffend was echoed by Martin Jones, the chief of probation.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it is a ‘certainty’ some will reoffend, adding that ‘around a third’ will commit further crimes. 

Mr Jones added that the scheme was putting a ‘huge amount of pressure’ on the probation service and that due to a lack of probation officers the system is ‘significantly overstretched’.

Inmates currently behind bars will be released after serving only 40 per cent of their sentence – the first time this has been lowered from the previous 50 per cent. 

The deeply controversial move will be the largest release of prisoners in a decade, with some prisons in rural areas preparing to lay on coaches to transport freed criminals. 

Among those being released is Lawson Natty, who supplied a machete that was used to kill 14-year-old Gordon Gault in Newcastle in November 2022.

The 18-year-old was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for two years and eight months in March, but will be released today, to the disgust of his victim’s mother, Dionne Barrett. 

She told Good Morning Britain: ‘I feel totally sick to my stomach that he’s allowed out now after only serving months it’s absolutely sickening.

‘He’ll be getting out within the next couple of days he will be going to an immigration processing centre to start with but then he could get bailed from there.

‘He’s going to be back out on the streets after months.

‘Fair enough let petty crimes out, not somebody who’s killed a 14-year-old child, someone who purchases machetes. What if he goes out and does it again to somebody else.’

I think it’s a massive risk, a massive risk in these circumstances for someone to be let out after such a small amount of time

Among those released is a thug who told his ex girlfriend he was ‘enjoying’ attacking her and another who broke his partner’s jaw are among the prisoners who could be free men today under Labour’s early release scheme. 

Among those set to walk free are Connar Shaw, from Rotherham, who will only serve 13 months of his 32-month prison sentence after strangling his partner and threatening to throw acid in her face during years of abuse.

It comes despite his victim saying in court how she would be scared when he is released as ‘there will be repercussions and that he will want to get his revenge on me for being in prison’. 

She added: ‘Connar is a psycho and he frightens me – I’m afraid that one day he will end up killing me.’

Shane Riley, from Swansea, will be released after serving less than nine months for punching, kicking and headbutting his ex partner after she broke up with him on June 8, 2020. 

Riley, who said he was ‘enjoying’ the abuse, was sentenced to 23 months for causing actual bodily harm, common assault, making threats to kill, and criminal damage. He will serve less than nine months.

Another offender who will taste freedom will be Jordan Green, who was put behind bars after he pleaded guilty to robbery and dangerous driving in March. 

He was jailed for 27 months after an incident saw him approach a woman’s window in Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees and screech: ‘Get out of the f***ing car.’

He proceeded to hurl her mobile phone out of his window as he sped off, which allowed her to take an image of the criminal.

Green, who was previously handed a prison sentence after he attacked his own mother, will only spend four months in jail.

Others set to be freed include drug dealer Patrick Scotland, of west London, who was jailed for ten years in 2020 after police found £2.2million of MDMA and crystal meth in his flat.

Fellow criminal Jason Holland, from Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, who was part of a gang which supplied drugs worth £70million around the M25 could be freed despite being jailed for 12 years in 2020.

Prison bosses are now having to ‘carefully choreograph’ the mass releases over fears of violent clashes between gang rivals, MailOnline understands.   

Meanwhile, a rise in homelessness is also feared as some prisoners are released with nowhere to go.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is providing accommodation for 12 weeks only, meaning some could end up on the streets and committing crime.

Prison leaders said there was even a risk that some of those freed today will become homeless straight away.

Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, told the Mail: ‘History tells us that there will be people who slip through the net.

A significant number of inmates at jails such as HMP Wandsworth and HMP Thameside in London are subject to ‘non-association’ orders preventing them from mixing with other inmates – usually members of rival gangs.

This means their releases will have to be staggered to avoid violence, a source told MailOnline.  

They added that these releases were being done in small groups, but warned that any delays with getting prisoners to reception, recovering their property and arranging transport could lead to rivals being brought together by mistake. 

Dame Diana Johnson, the policing minister, insisted plans would be put in place to avoid re-offending by domestic abusers and other high-risk criminals. 

She told Sky News: ‘There’s been a real trawl through to try and identify where their primary offence isn’t domestic abuse, we know there’s a history, and that’s where the steps have been put in to protect as best we can.

‘Because we know, unfortunately, domestic abuse is so prevalent amongst the offending community.’

Asked by the BBC how many prisoners were due to be released today, she said: ‘I understand it’s in the region of about 1,700.’ 

A senior government source warned yesterday that a high proportion of those released would be domestic abusers.

Nicole Jacobs, the domestic abuse commissioner, warned that about a third of domestic abuse survivors were likely unaware that their perpetrators are due to set free.

She told the Times that victims were ‘paying the price’ for Britain’s overcrowded prisons, warning that survivors are at risk of their attackers getting in contact with them, with them likely knowing their workplace and home address.

‘We must ensure that victims aren’t lost in the shuffle of the changes that are being made in the prison release schemes and the perception of justice and fairness.

‘Victims of domestic abuse are very focused on those release dates, it causes them sleepless nights, they will change so much of their daily activities knowing that their perpetrator is being released, the uncertainty of not knowing if that person will comply with licensing conditions and of release.

‘This is incredibly stressful in the normal situation so for those dates to change unexpectedly or without them knowing that is a huge consequence for them to pay.’

Newly appointed Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said measures have been taken to reduce the number of domestic offenders being freed by excluding those serving time for coercive control, stalking, harassment and breach of a restraining or non-molestation order.

But prisoners convicted of broader offences like assault or criminal damage, which are not specific to domestic violence, are not excluded. 

Official figures showed there were 88,521 people behind bars on Friday, 171 more than the previous record set at the end of last week.

The prison population has now risen by 1,025 people over the past four weeks and now stands at its highest level since weekly population data was first published in 2011.

Crimes exempt from the new early release scheme include prisoners sentences for sexual and violent offences of over four years.

The Justice Secretary said she has been told that the emergency early release plan could prevent prisons running out of space within weeks.

The MOJ has said the move will give them an extra 18 months to allow more prison places to be freed up and allow for a wider review of sentencing to take place.