by A number of prisoners released earlier this week have been recalled to prison within days of being freed, the Telegraph can reveal.
It is understood the first criminal sent back to prison was recalled within 36 hours of his release on Tuesday as part of the Government’s early release scheme.
About 1,750 prisoners were freed on Tuesday after prisons in England and Wales came close to running out of space.
Under the scheme, prisoners were released 40 per cent of the way through their sentences rather than halfway through. Up to 1,700 more are due to be released on Tuesday 22 October.
Most have been revoked for breaches of their licence, which places restrictions on where they can go, who they can meet and where they can live, as well as requiring them to attend meetings with their probation officers.
It is believed that the first person brought back to a pre-arranged address failed, prompting probation officers to alert the police, who located him and took him back into custody within 36 hours.
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Prison and probation sources said they always expected inmates to be recalled, regardless of early release.
“The idea that they would significantly change their behavior by spending another 10 percent of their time in custody would be optimistic,” one source said.
Probation chief inspector Martin Jones predicted on Tuesday that the prisoners were “almost bound” to be sent back to prison “within days or weeks” because “things will go wrong in the community” and they will offend. the terms of their license.
He said the biggest factor in deciding early recalls was whether released inmates had accommodation and predicted a third were likely to re-offend within a year of release, based on previous trends.
On Tuesday, The Telegraph spoke to one inmate who hoped to be back in prison in short order. Jack Creighton, 54, said he would be “sleeping on a park bench tonight” after being released early without arranging any accommodation.
Creighton, who said he had been “in and out of prison” for “minor offences”, was released from HMP Wandsworth in south London.
Speaking outside the prison gates, he said: “I’ll be sleeping on a park bench tonight, and I’ll definitely start drinking and then I’ll come back.”
Shabana Mahmood, the Secretary of Justice, put budget hotels on standby as emergency accommodation for the released prisoners in an attempt to reduce the chances of them being left homeless. Just over 13 per cent of offenders released in the year to March were homeless.
The chances of revocation have also increased due to prison overcrowding, which has meant that rehabilitative work – such as work training, education and drug or alcohol treatment schemes – has been limited, according to reports from Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons.
A 59-year-old released early from HMP Brixton on Tuesday told The Times he was locked up there for “hitting people in the head” but was released after spending 17 months behind bars.
Asked if he felt he had recovered, the man, who gave his name only as Mr T, said: “Definitely not. There is no recovery.
“Nobody talks to you – you go in, you lie down and 17 months later I’m out. I don’t want to re-offend, but you never know. You can never say never.”
Figures from the Ministry of Justice show that 7,415 prisoners were revoked for breaching their license between January and March this year, a nine per cent increase on the same quarter the previous year.
The 7,415 revocations represented more than half of the 13,829 prisoners released in the same quarter. It is said that around 12,000 prisoners – about 13 per cent of the total prison population – are brought to prison at any given time.
The nine per cent increase has been attributed to the Tories’ introduction of their ad hoc early release scheme and increased caution from probation officers following high-profile scandals about more serious offenses by ex-prisoners.
In a report on the data, MoJ officials warned that the extension of the Tories’ early release scheme for prisoners, to up to 70 days before their scheduled date, would mean “recalls are likely to show increases in the next few quarters”.
Labour’s scheme differs in that prisoners’ release date is changed to 40 per cent of their sentence unless they have been jailed for sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse or for more than four years for violence .
Sources said this gave prison and probation officials more certainty about release dates. Also, announcing the scheme two months ago, the MoJ said it aimed to give all the relevant authorities and services the necessary time to prepare for the release of offenders and to notify give to victims.
An MoJ spokesman said: “This Government inherited a justice system that is collapsing, and allowing this to happen is the worst possible outcome for victims. We have been forced to take difficult but necessary measures, with safeguards in place, so that we can continue to lock up offenders and protect the public.
“Those released under this scheme will be subject to full probation supervision – including strict license conditions such as tags, exclusion zones and curfews – and we will not hesitate to recall those who break the rules.”
