Met police chief sides with minister in row over early release of prisoners

MET Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has said the Government was being forced to free prisoners earlier to avoid a situation that would be "dangerous for the public".

- Nicholas Cecil

He stressed that ministers were having to adopt the "least-worst option" of earlier releases amid warnings that if they did not, jails would be full, leading to paralysis in the courts and police officers unable to arrest suspected offenders as there would be no place to detain them.

New Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, right, was unveiling emergency action to stop the criminal justice system imploding, with some inmates expected to be freed after serving 40 per cent of their sentence, rather than half. Sir Mark told ITV'S Good Morning Britain: "Prisons are very close to full and filling up. The worst possible thing would be for the system to block."