The British Minister of Justice, Shabana Mahmood announced on Friday a temporary emergency plan to release thousands of prisoners with lesser sentences early in order to avoid a prison system collapse due to a lack of places in England and Wales.

Mahmood said that, Starting in September, the time a convict must spend in prison before being automatically released on parole will be reduced from 50% to 40%.while the number of agents supervising permits will be increased by one thousand.

The minister stressed that this measure, which will require legislation, “It will not be permanent” because he still believes “that criminals must be punished”but it is necessary now to prevent the justice system from being blocked by a lack of cells for new detainees.

The Labour politician detailed the initiative during a visit to Five Wells prison in central England, when He stressed that prisoners with sentences of more than four years for violent crimes, sexual offenders and those accused of domestic violence will be exempt from early release.

The new Labour Government will scrap the “unmanageable” plan launched in October 2023 by the previous conservative government, which released some 10,000 prisoners up to 70 days before the end of their sentences. Mahmood said the measures announced on Friday would give Keir Starmer’s government time to present a long-term strategy in the autumn to reform the prison system, which he said was “on the brink of collapse.”

“When prisons are full, violence increases, and that puts prison officers at risk. “When there are no cells available, suspects cannot be held, which means vans full of dangerous people driving around the country, with nowhere to go,” he said.

The minister said that when this happens, police are forced to give up their own cells, which means officers cannot make further arrests, and it also means a blockage in the courts, which cannot prosecute suspects. The chief commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in London, Mark Rowley, said that although “It is not ideal,” the early release of some prisoners “is the least bad solution.”

Men’s prisons in England and Wales are at 99% capacity since the beginning of 2023 and it is expected that they will run out of places in a few weeks