Probation staff 'too busy to safely handle early releases'

Ministers warned over scheme to free up space in prisons

- ANDY GREGORY

Severe staff shortages mean the beleaguered probation service cannot safely monitor prisoners in the community under new plans to free up prison spaces, senior figures have warned.

In a review ordered by justice secretary Shabana Mahmood as the prison crisis boiled over during her first days in office, her Tory predecessor, David Gauke, recommended freeing many prisoners a third of the way into their sentence and telling judges to avoid jailing people for less than a year in favour of community sentences.

While the plans have been widely welcomed, concerns have been raised over how the under-pressure probation service will cope with an influx of new offenders to manage.

Ms Mahmood is expected to accept most of the proposals, but former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland expressed concern that the plans could merely "transfer a prison-based problem into the community". And probation union Napo warned that there was now a "vital window" to invest in staff and their wellbeing before the changes place "massive, massive pressure" on a service already in "chaos".