Ministers to scrap most short prison sentences

Ministers will legislate next month to abolish most short prison sentences, toughen up community punishments and introduce a Texas-inspired system whereby inmates can earn early release, as part of an attempt to avert another prison crisis.

- Eleni Courea

Government sources said the legislation, which will bring about the biggest shake-up in sentencing laws in England and Wales for three decades, would be introduced once MPs had returned to the Commons in September.

They said Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, was conscious of the need to implement the changes quickly before prisons had another capacity crunch next summer.

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.