Justice secretary set to announce plans on prisons overcrowding crisis

Shabana Mahmood to set out emergency measures, which could include reducing the time before some prisoners are automatically released

The Justice Secretary is set to announce plans on Friday to address prison overcrowding in England and Wales, with fears jails will run out of space within weeks.

Shabana Mahmood is expected to set out emergency measures that could include reducing the time before some prisoners are automatically released. She is expected to argue that the level of overcrowding, described by the Ministry of Justice as “catastrophic”, requires “immediate action” to “pull the justice system back from the brink of total collapse”.

On Thursday, the prime minister said the scale of the problem was “worse than I thought” and expressed anger at being faced with taking emergency measures so early in his premiership.

Responding to a question at the Nato summit, Keir Starmer called the crisis “unforgivable” and showed “gross irresponsibility” from the previous government.

One of the moves expected to be announced on Friday is a reduction in the amount of a sentence a prisoner must serve before being automatically released.

Most prisoners currently serve 50% of their sentence in jail, with the remaining 50% being served on licence and under threat of being returned to prison if they break their parole conditions.