Prisons crisis: most short sentences to be abolished

Implement the changes quickly before prisons had another capacity crunch next summer.

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Thousands of inmates were released after Labour won power last summer in an emergency measure to deal with overcrowding.

The sentencing bill will include measures backed by the government that were recommended by the former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke in a review in the spring.

The central change will be the introduction of an incentive scheme - or "earned progression model" - for prisoners serving fixed-term sentences to earn early release with good behaviour.

Criminals, including some violent ones, will be able to earn early release after serving between a third and half of their sentence, though the most dangerous criminals and those convicted of terror-related offences will be excluded.

The scheme is modelled on a system in place in Texas, which Mahmood visited this year.