More prisoners leave HMP Wandsworth in latest wave of early releases

Hundreds more prisoners have been released from jails across the UK in the latest wave of early releases.

A prisoner leaving HMP Wandsworth in latest wave of early releases

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The former inmate is one of 650 prisoners set to be freed on Tuesday

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One former inmate grinned as he carried three bags out of the Victorian-era prison.

Around 650 prisoners - who are serving sentences of more than 882 days (about two years and five months) and fewer than 1,163 days (roughly three years and two months) - are due to be freed.

Over the next year, some 5,000 prisoners will be released across several phases.

The Government initially planned to release 6,000 inmates from prisons across the UK, but this was scaled back to exempt rapists and the most serious child sex offenders from the scheme.

Ministers are now releasing groups of offenders on increasingly longer sentences as the scheme goes on.

The controversial scheme was launched to combat prison overcrowding and free up space in jails.

It means that criminals serving fixed-term sentences will serve a third of their time behind bars before being released, rather than half.

Last month, inmates were seen celebrating their freedom as they walked out the doors of prisons across the country.

Sarah Pochin MP has slammed the Government’s early release scheme

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Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin records a piece to camera outside HMP Wandsworth in south London

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On Tuesday, Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin was seen outside the prison as former inmates walked free.

The MP for Runcorn & Helsby told Jeremy Kyle on his eponymously named breakfast show: “The people being released today will have received - some of them three years custodial sentence”.

“Believe me, you can have committed some very, very nasty crimes, and yes, nasty crimes against women, to have received a three year sentence.”

The prison population of England and Wales was 86,982 on Monday, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data, up from 86,883 last week.