The Justice Secretary has announced more emergency measures to curb prison overcrowding as she warned jails are on track to be down to “zero capacity” by November.
Shabana Mahmood unveiled changes to prison recall on Wednesday, with criminals serving between one and four years of jail time being returned to custody only for “a fixed 28-day period”.
Offenders are recalled to prison if they commit another offence when they are released early but remain on licence.
A standard recall currently results in offenders being taken back to prison for the remainder of their sentence, but this can also be for shorter fixed terms in some circumstances.
It is hoped the move, which is expected to affect 1,400 offenders, will “buy time” before sentencing reforms expected to come into force next spring.
Legislation to bring in the changes is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.
Ms Mahmood also announced three new prisons will be built starting this year, as part of a “record prison expansion”, but admitted “we cannot build our way out of this crisis”.
Of the recall changes, the Lord Chancellor said: “It buys us the time we need to introduce the sentencing reforms that – alongside our record prison-building plans – will end the crisis in our prisons for good.
“The consequences of failing to act are unthinkable, but they must be understood.
“If our prisons overflow, courts cancel trials, police halt their arrests, crime goes unpunished and we reach a total breakdown of law and order.”
The recall change will exclude those who commit serious crimes, such as violent and sexual offences, or are recalled for committing a further serious offence.
They will still be subject to standard recall to serve the remainder of their sentence behind bars or until an earlier release is determined by the Parole Board.
“We also will exclude those who are subject to higher levels of risk management by multiple agencies where the police, prisons and probation services work together,” the Justice Secretary said.
Ms Mahmood told reporters the recall population has “more than doubled” in seven years.
In 2018 the figure was 6,000, but it had climbed to 13,600 by March this year.
The three new prisons will go ahead on existing Ministry of Justice land and create around 5,000 places, after securing a capital investment of £4.7 billion.
Ms Mahmood said officials will be “breaking ground” on a site near HMP Gartree in Leicestershire “later this year”.
She added: “This is a record prison expansion, and after the long delays under the last government, who allowed their backbenchers to block every project, we are building at breakneck pace.”
But she said that despite the record building, the population is “rising too fast” and despite the funding announced on Wednesday, by spring 2028 “we will be 9,500 places short”.
The latest weekly prison population in England and Wales was 88,087, 434 below the last peak of 88,521 inmates on September 6, recorded just before the Government began freeing thousands of prisoners early as part of efforts to curb overcrowding.
Ministers ordered early releases by temporarily reducing the proportion of sentences some prisoners must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%.
Amy Rees, the Ministry of Justice’s interim permanent secretary, said the Government would “run out of prison places in just five months’ time” if further measures were not taken.
“On our current trajectory, the prison population rises by 3,000, and now we expect to hit zero capacity, to entirely run out of prison places for adult men, in November of this year,” she said.
Early release measures have “only bought the service time”, Ms Rees added, including the Government’s decision to reduce early release to 40% of sentences.
Reacting to the fresh measures on Wednesday, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said Labour was “making the problem worse”.
He said: “Under Labour’s new rules, instead of being recalled to serve the rest of their sentence, they’ll be given a fixed-term recall of a pitiful 28 days.
“They are then released, with no reassessment of risk or Parole Board oversight.
“That is not justice. It’s a recipe for the breakdown of law and order.
“By telling prisoners that they will never serve their full sentence, even if they reoffend, the Justice Secretary has removed an important deterrent.
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