Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve says the number of prisoners sent home on ‘overnight release’ has trebled in just two years, due to a chronic lack of prison cells.
Prisoners in the latter part of their sentence are entitled to apply for periods of overnight release up to once every four weeks. Overnight release usually lasts for up to four days.
Grieve said that there was a case for allowing some prisoners to stay home overnight as they approach release, “in order to re-establish community links and aid their transition back into society”. But, he stressed that overnight release should never be used “simply because of a lack of prison cells”.
In 2006, just 3,813 offenders were granted resettlement overnight release. Last year, 11,599 offenders were allowed out - an increase of 204% in two years. “
At the end of last week, prisons in England and Wales were running at 99 per cent of maximum capacity. "The trouble is that Labour’s incompetent management has yet again brought prisons back to bursting point”, Grieve added.