Jail time for recalled offenders to be limited to free up prison places

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Shabana Mahmood will limit for how long hundreds of repeat offenders can be recalled to prison amid Whitehall predictions that jails will be full again in November.
The justice secretary also announced a £4.7bn plan to build three new prisons starting this year, part of a 'record expansion' as the government attempts to get to grips with the criminal justice system.
Senior Tories accused Mahmood of failing to punish criminals, sarcastically saying repeat offenders would be 'quaking in their boots'.
In an alarming message delivered at a Downing Street press conference, Mahmood said prisons were 99% full, adding: 'If we don't do anything now, we risk a total breakdown in law and order.'
There would be a shake-up of the 'prison recall' system to allow some prisoners to be returned to prison for only a fixed 28-day period if they breach their licence conditions, she said.
'It is shameful that this country in 2025 finds itself in this cycle of crisis. It is shameful that for so long, the last Conservative government failed to reckon with the reality of a rising prison population,' Mahmood said.
She said the new recall measures were expected to free up about 1,400 places. They will apply to offenders who were sentenced to between one and four years and were let out on licence but committed another offence.
Asked how many people would be released as a result of the fixed-term measures, Mahmood said: 'We believe that that number will allow us to get from November into spring of next year … we are on track to hit zero capacity within our prison estate by November, and this measure will tide us over until any changes from the sentencing review start to hit the system.'
The proposals have been condemned by two government-appointed tsars who represent victims, who claim that sexual and domestic abusers will be freed to terrorise victims again.
Dame Nicole Jacobs, the domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, said: 'I cannot stress enough the lack of consideration for victims' safety and how many lives are being put in danger because of this proposed change.
'You are not sent to prison for four years if you do not pose significant risk to your victim or the wider public. Perpetrators of domestic abuse know everything about their victim … Re-releasing them back into the community after 28 days is simply unacceptable.
'What makes this worse is that ministers cannot safely exempt all perpetrators of domestic abuse from this proposal, because they do not know how many domestic abusers are serving time in prison or currently being monitored by probation.'
The victims' commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, said she would be writing to Mahmood to express her concern that the 'short-term, stopgap' measures are corroding confidence in justice.
'I find it difficult to understand why this specific group of offenders has been targeted for early release and I am concerned about the implications for victim safety,' she said.
'I will be seeking urgent clarity from the lord chancellor on how this policy will operate in practice – and what safeguards will be put in place.'
A standard recall currently results in offenders being taken back to prison for the remainder of their sentence, but it can be for shorter fixed terms in some circumstances.
The latest measures are aimed at dealing with the scale of the continuing crisis in jails, with the latest weekly prison population in England and Wales standing at 88,087. This is 434 below the last peak in the prison population of 88,521 inmates on 6 September, recorded just before the government began freeing thousands of prisoners early as part of efforts to curb overcrowding.
The three prisons will be built near existing prisons, Mahmood said, with construction workers breaking ground on a site near HMP Gartree in Leicestershire later this year.
Officials said the others would be near HMP Garth near Leyland, Lancashire, and HMP Grendon in the village of Grendon Underwood, Buckinghamshire.
Mahmood said that despite 'record prison expansion', England and Wales would still be more than 9,000 prison places short by 2028. The recall population in prisons had more than doubled in seven years, she said.
Some offenders will be excluded from the scheme, 'including any offender who has been recalled for committing a serious further offence', Mahmood said.
Amy Rees, the Ministry of Justice interim permanent secretary, said the government would run out of prison places in 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.
Next week an independent sentencing review will recommend a package of measures on prison overcrowding. Led by the former Tory justice secretary David Gauke, it will say prisoners will be able to earn their freedom after serving a third of their sentences under new minimum and maximum sentence plans.
Offenders in England and Wales will be able to earn early release if they complete work, training or education assignments and demonstrate good behaviour.
Gauke is expected to support the further deployment of specialist courts to break addictions of prolific offenders. Intensive supervision courts have been set up for female offenders in three pilots across England and Wales.
Mahmood said changes from a sentencing bill would be expected to start having an effect in April next year. 'We will legislate at pace. And as I described earlier, currently we're on track to come down to zero capacity in November of this year,' she said.
'That's why I've announced the measures on fixed-term recall today. We would anticipate that any changes from a sentencing bill could start having an impact on April of next year, so that's the timeline that we are working to. We're moving very, very quickly, but it's because we want to make sure we never have to do emergency releases again.'
Posting on X, the shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, said: 'Labour are so obsessed with working from home, they want to roll it out to prisoners too. Criminals will be quaking in their boots.'