Prison governors are sounding the alarm that many people released under last year’s early-release programme are rapidly returning to custody. According to several serving governors who spoke anonymously, a steady flow of recalled inmates — including those breaching licence conditions or reoffending — is producing a “revolving door” effect that undermines efforts to ease overcrowding.
The recalls follow the 2024 emergency scheme intended to relieve pressure on a prison estate operating at roughly 97% capacity. By March, more than 70,000 people had been freed through that programme. Despite those releases, nearly 87,000 people remain in prisons across England and Wales, with only about 2,000 places left. With a criminal-court backlog running into the tens of thousands, governors say available space is still far short of what’s needed.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced changes to the next wave of early releases, scheduled to begin in October, after public outcry that those responsible for the 2019 death of PC Andrew Harper might have been eligible. Burnham said anyone convicted of unlawful killing will be excluded from the upcoming scheme. The government also plans to bar offenders convicted of manslaughter or murder, serious child sexual offences, rape and grooming, indecent assault and death by dangerous driving — among others — under the Sentencing Act. The justice secretary is due to set out further details in Parliament.
Governors described the operational consequences of the current approach. One northern governor said short-term measures and adding cells to existing prisons won’t solve the problem because new accommodation still requires more staff to operate safely. Staffing shortages, they said, mean prisoners are often living in conditions that are neither safe nor decent.
Overcrowding has other knock-on effects. Several governors warned that mixing inmates from different regions increases the risk of gang tensions and rivalries, as people from Manchester, Liverpool or different parts of London are housed together. They also reported that single-occupancy cells are increasingly being used for two people, raising health and safety concerns in cramped spaces where facilities are limited.
Maintenance and infrastructure problems are making matters worse. Governors say some cells are unusable because prisons have not been properly maintained for decades, creating fragile infrastructure that regularly breaks down. Converting unused or disused spaces into functional accommodation is possible, but it will take months and is difficult while facilities remain full.
The Prison Governors Association, represented by president Tom Wheatley, said governors were not briefed in advance about the government’s plans to reduce overcrowding and questioned how staff should manage prisoners’ reactions if information is released last minute.
A 2024 National Audit Office report highlighted the risks to prison capacity posed by the poor condition of parts of the estate, noting that roughly a quarter of places — around 23,000 — do not meet fire-safety standards. The Ministry of Justice responded by stressing that recalls are an important public-safety tool and saying the government inherited a prison system in crisis. Officials pointed to measures they say will reduce pressure: reforming recall durations, building 14,000 new prison places, expanding electronic tagging and giving victims more input into licence conditions.
Governors argue those steps will take time and will not prevent immediate problems caused by thousands of people being released and then recalled. With limited staff, crumbling facilities and a court backlog that feeds more sentences into an already stretched system, some warn the criminal justice system risks grinding to a halt unless urgent, practical measures are taken now to create usable space and stabilise operations.