The prison population in England and Wales has fallen by more than 2,000 people in just one week, after the start of a government plan to reduce overcrowding.
A temporary early release scheme came into effect on Tuesday 10 September, which sees around 1,750 prisoners released after serving 40 per cent of their sentence, rather than the usual 50 per cent.
Tuesday’s cohort of early leavers were those serving sentences of less than five years, and on 22 October it will be the turn of those with sentences of five years or more – but the government insists it won’t apply to most serious offenders such as killers, rapists and terrorists.
Last Friday, the prison population was 88, 521.
But today the figure has fallen by 2,188, to 86,333.
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