Terms for reoffenders cut to ease jails crisis

Shabana Mahmood will limit how long hundreds of repeat offenders can be recalled to prison amid Whitehall predictions that jails will be full again in November.

- Rajeev Syal

The lord chancellor also announced a £4.7bn plan to build three new prisons, starting this year, as part of a "record expansion" to get to grips with the criminal justice system.

In an alarming message delivered at a Downing Street press conference, Mahmood warned that prisons were 99% full, adding: "If we don't do anything now, we risk a total breakdown in law and order."

The "prison recall" system would be overhauled to allow some prisoners to be returned to prison only for a fixed 28-day period for breaching licence conditions, she said.

"It is shameful that this country in 2025 finds itself in this cycle of crisis," said Mahmood. "It is shameful that for so long, the last Conservative government failed to reckon with the reality of a rising prison population."

The change was expected to free up about 1,400 places, Mahmood indicated.

The new rules will apply to offenders who were sentenced to between one and four years then let out on licence only to commit another offence.

Asked how many people would be released as a result of the fixedterm measures, Mahmood said: "We believe that that number will allow us to get from November into spring of next year ... we are on track to hit zero capacity within our prison estate by November, and this measure will tide us over until any changes from the sentencing review start to hit."