It is “inevitable that things will go wrong” when prisoners are freed early to try to alleviate prison overcrowding, the Chief Inspector of Probation has said.
About 5,500 prisoners in England and Wales are expected to be released earlier than planned in September and October as part of the temporary scheme.
It does not apply to those convicted of sex offences, domestic abuse, terrorism or some violent offences.
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Those released early will serve the rest of their sentence under the “strictest licensing conditions” and will be tagged, the government has said.
But Martin Jones, who became Chief Inspector of Probation in March, said there are “no risk-free options available”.
He said the eight weeks the government has given the probation service to plan for the scheme has given it “at least a fighting chance of getting this right”.
However, he warned the number of offenders being released means some could reoffend when they should have been in jail.
He told The Times: “I think it’s inevitable, being realistic about it, that things will go wrong. I wish we could live in a perfect world where that doesn’t happen.
“What I think you should start to see, at least, is that if people have to focus on those, that they start to identify where things go wrong, and they draw lessons from that quite quickly.
“I also think there’s a little bit of a numbers game to some extent, you’re rolling the dice all the time in relation to serious further offences.
“You know, ultimately, if you release thousands of people, a number of those cases will ultimately, sadly, there will…
