An estimated 6,000 prisoners in England and Wales will leave custody earlier than planned under the Sentencing Act 2026. Releases will run in 10 monthly tranches, starting on 2 September.
The Act changes the release point for most people serving fixed-term sentences. They will now leave prison after serving 33 per cent of their time in custody. Under the current rules, the figure is 40 per cent.
The law also affects longer fixed-term sentences for more serious crimes, including manslaughter, rape and GBH. Prisoners in this group previously left custody at the 66 per cent point of their sentence. They will now leave at the 50 per cent point.
The first releases in September will cover people who have already passed their release date under the new calculation. Those on the shortest sentences will go first. The tranches will vary in size. Earlier ones are likely to include more people, and later ones fewer.
Added days and tagging
The Government is also strengthening the prison disciplinary system. Prisoners who break the rules will face more added days in custody as a punishment.
This change nods towards the ‘earned release’ model put forward by the former justice secretary David Gauke. The new Labour Government commissioned his Independent Review of Sentencing in 2024. That review formed the blueprint for the Act.
A new presumption will also require prisoners on fixed-term sentences to wear an electronic tag after release. The tag will usually cover the gap between the old and new release dates. Someone freed at the 33 per cent point will usually wear a tag until the 40 per cent point.
Warning over victims
The first large release in September is likely to draw media attention and public criticism. Earlier mass releases drew a similar response. Both the last Conservative government and the current Labour Government had brought in such emergency schemes.
Tom Wheatley is President of the Prison Governors’ Association. He told the Daily Telegraph that some victims would become very upset once the Ministry of Justice wrote to them. “They will have been expecting the person to be in prison for a much longer period, but now they are going to be out in weeks,” he said.
He said previous early release schemes had excluded particular types of offender, but this one would not. “This is a statutory change, so it doesn’t matter what you have been sentenced for,” he said.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson also spoke to the Daily Telegraph. The spokesperson said the reforms aimed to fix a prison system in crisis. The Government had inherited that system from its predecessor.
Without “this decisive action, prisons would have run out of space entirely”, the spokesperson said. That would have made it impossible to send convicted offenders to prison. It would also have put the public at untold risk.
