Man free of jail time period for knife offences beneath Keir Starmer’s early launch scheme is charged with homicide

A man freed from prison under Sir Keir Starmer‘s early release scheme has been charged with murder.

Following his early release from jail for knife offences, the man has been charged over an incident in London.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was released to reduce overcrowding in prisons.

The charge is the most serious offence allegedly committed by a prisoner who has been released under the scheme brought about by Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who said that overcrowding had pushed jails to the ‘point of collapse’.

Ms Mahmood introduced the programme last September, with more than 38,000 criminals released from jail early under its soft justice programme.

The government introduced extra sentence discounts for the majority of criminals, which allow them to be released after serving just 40 per cent of a sentence handed down by a court. 

June saw 4,358 offenders let out early under the programme, known as ‘SDS40’, the highest monthly number since October last year when there was an initial surge of backdated releases. 

New figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) show 38,042 offenders were let out of prison under the scheme between, equating to 129 a day between September last year and this June.

An inmate leaving HMP Liverpool on September 10 under the scheme (file picture) 

On the first day of Labour’s scheme in September 2024, lags released early were seen celebrating outside jails. Pictured: People spray sparkling wine over a man who walked out of Nottingham Prison

More than 1,000 serious criminals who were sentenced to more than a decade in jail have now been released early by Labour.

The MoJ data showed 346 of those freed so far had been handed sentences of 14 years or more, while 710 had been ordered to serve between 10 and 14 years.

Under Labour’s scheme, a criminal given 14 years by a court will serve just five and a half years.

Those jailed for sex crimes, terrorism and serious violent crimes carrying more than four years in jail are excluded from the early release terms.

But violent offenders sentenced to less than four years can be freed early, including killers convicted of manslaughter.

The data also revealed that the number of recalls to prison has risen by 13 per cent as more than 11,000 prisoners were recalled to custody between April and June, compared to 9,782 in the same period last year and 6,814 in 2023. 

The majority of recalls were due to non-compliance with licence conditions, but 22 per cent of recalls involved a charge of further offending.

The charging of the man is expected to bring about a review into possible further offences to see if anything could have been done differently before his early release, The Times reported. 

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: ‘Under this Government crime pays.

‘Already 38,000 offenders have been released early – and soon tens of thousands will avoid prison altogether.

‘Criminals will be licking their lips, free to offend and wreck our communities all over again.’

Under the Sentencing Bill, currently going through Parliament, courts will no longer impose jail terms of less than 12 months other than in ‘exceptional circumstances’.

Criminals convicted of serious violence or sex offences would be freed after half their term, rather than the current three-quarters point.

Most other offenders could be released after serving just a third of their sentence.

Ms Mahmood has since been moved to the Home Office, where she is responsible for ensuring police are catching criminals, who are then let out of jail by her former department.

The early release scheme is now overseen by Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy.

The Ministry of Justice said: ‘This government inherited a prison system in crisis and took decisive action to stop our prisons from collapsing. Public protection is our number one priority. That is why offenders out on licence face strict conditions such as exclusion zones and being tagged, and they can be brought back to prison if they break these rules.

‘We are building 14,000 prison places — with 2,500 opened since last July — and reforming sentencing so our jails are never left to run out of space again.’