A Northumberland councillor has described the Government's plan to free prisoners early as "total madness" that will put the safety of county residents at risk.
Thousands of criminals are set to leave jail after serving just a small percentage of their original sentence under reforms brought in to free up space in overcrowded prisons. After taking office, Prime Minister Andy Burnham initially paused the scheme, introduced through the Sentencing Act 2026, for review, but has now announced it will go ahead, with eligible prisoners being freed from October 1.
Changes to sentencing rules
Under the new rules, criminals originally required to serve 40 or 50 per cent of their sentence behind bars can be released after serving just a third, while those who would have originally been behind bars for two-thirds of their term can be released after serving just 50 per cent.
The plans have caused outrage among the loved ones of victims of serious crimes, who have been told the offenders that destroyed their lives could be back on the streets sooner.
Councillor's fears for Northumberland
Coun Gordon Stewart, who represents the Prudhoe South Ward and is a member of the county council's cabinet for public safety, fears some prisoners freed early from HMP Northumberland may need to be housed near the prison if they cannot return to the areas where they offended. He believes this could put residents at risk.
"Calling this scheme anything other than total madness would be an understatement," he said. "Overcrowding in prisons is a serious issue, but opening the gates early is a reckless, short-term gamble that puts the safety of our residents in Northumberland and across the country at risk."
He added: "Our local emergency services, community safety teams, and support networks are working tirelessly to keep our streets safe. Dumping the consequences of systemic failure onto local communities without proper resources, probation oversight, or long-term planning is completely unfair to law-abiding citizens and victims of crime."
"The Government must halt this ill-thought-out scheme immediately and focus on real, sustainable solutions to the justice crisis rather than compromising public safety."
Impact on communities
Stewart noted that many of those being released cannot return to where they were living when they committed the offences, so they are likely to be released into the community close to the prison they are released from. He highlighted that Northumberland is a huge county with low policing numbers and not even one custody suite left.
"The scheme risks traumatizing victims and witnesses of crime, who expect justice to be served fully and transparently," he said.
Prime Minister's response
Earlier this week, Mr Burnham announced that rapists and perpetrators of serious child sex and grooming offences would be exempt from early release. He said he wanted to exclude even more offenders from the changes, but doing so would risk seeing the whole prison system collapse.
The Prime Minister said: "I want to be honest - I wanted to go even further as I know there will still be concerns about other offenders having their sentence shortened. But it's not possible without the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing, which would put public safety at much greater risk."
Ministry of Justice measures
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has explained that prisoners eligible for early release will be freed in "ten monthly tranches" from October. It also said the department would be working closely with local authorities so prison leavers can move into settled accommodation.
Prisoners at risk of becoming homeless can be offered up to 12 weeks of basic accommodation on release by HM Prison and Probation Service, with support to move to settled accommodation. This programme has been gradually rolled out nationwide since July 2021 and since then has supported over 35,815 prison leavers who would otherwise have been homeless, the MOJ said.
