Violent prisoners, including those convicted of sex offences and domestic abuse, could be released after serving just a third of their sentence in a bid to ease prison overcrowding, under new recommendations made in a landmark review.
The Independent Sentencing Review also recommends that more offenders are managed in the community instead of serving custodial sentences.
The government will expand a small pilot scheme offering voluntary chemical castration to some sex offenders to 20 more prisons after the report said that trial should continue.
Former Lord Chancellor David Gauke, who chaired the review, told Radio 4's Today programme that reducing sentences was "the right thing to be doing".
Earlier, Gauke said major reforms were needed to "end the dangerous cycle of emergency releases".
"The scale of the crisis we are in cannot be understated," he said. "Overcrowded prisons are leading to dangerous conditions for staff and contributing to high levels of reoffending."
Last year, thousands of inmates were released early in an emergency measure to deal with prison overcrowding.
Eligible prisoners serving more than five years were automatically released after serving only 40% of their fixed-term sentence, rather than the usual 50%.
The government then commissioned the Independent Sentencing Review to look into the causes of the crisis, and to consider alternative punishments to custodial sentences.
The government previously confirmed it wanted to start work on three new prisons before the end of 2025, and that £4.7bn would be allocated for prison-building between 2026 and 2031 at the government spending review, due next month.
But in the report released on Thursday, Gauke warns "we cannot build our way out of" the overcrowding crisis.
The government is expected to accept some of the key measures in principle, with further detail to follow in a future sentencing bill.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to respond to the review on behalf of the government in the House of Commons later on Thursday.
The review also calls for:
- Offenders to be given short custodial sentences of less than 12 months in only exceptional circumstances, such as if they don't comply with court orders or to provide respite for victims of domestic abuse
- The continuation of a pilot scheme providing voluntary chemical castration for sex offenders in the south-west of England
- Suspended sentences to be allowed for up to three years, and for them to be used more for low-risk offenders with high needs, such as people with substance abuse issues or pregnant women
- Courts to have greater flexibility to impose fines or travel, driving and football bans
- More funding for the Probation Service – which supervises offenders serving community sentences or those released into the community from prison – and greater availability of electronic monitoring equipment like tags
It also proposes an "earned progression model" for offenders, inspired by reforms in the US state of Texas. The BBC visited a high-security, supermax prison in Texas with Ms Mahmood in February.
Under an earned progression model, offenders would progress through three stages: custody, where prisoners are incentivised to behave; post-custody, where offenders are strictly supervised and subjected to licence conditions; and the at-risk stage, where offenders aren't supervised but can be recalled if they offend again.
Prisoners on standard determinate sentences – a fixed-length prison term – could move to the post-custody stage after serving one-third of their sentence providing they behave well. If not, they stay until halfway.
This could include sex offenders and perpetrators of domestic abuse.
As first reported by The Sun, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is seeking to expand the chemical castration pilot for sex offenders to two more regions – a measure she hopes will be a staging post to a full, nationwide rollout.
She is also considering whether to make the measure mandatory, rather than voluntary, though no timeline for making this decision has been set.
The review recommends that specialist domestic abuse courts should also be expanded to better support victims, and more perpetrators of violence against women and girls should be tagged.
Perpetrators of domestic abuse should be more clearly identified at sentencing so that the right interventions are put in place for them to be managed inside and outside prison, it adds.
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Nicole Jacobs, said the measures, if adopted, would send "a clear message to domestic abusers that they can now offend with little consequence".
Campbell Robb, chief executive of prison support charity Nacro, said a move away from short jail terms towards community sentences "could be a genuine game-changer, interrupting the vicious cycle that traps people in prison".
However, Justice for Victims said said the report had not taken the views of those impacted by violent crime into account.
The campaign group said: "We welcome the extra investment and plans for new prison places from the Government. But there isn't any excuse for letting the worst offenders get out of prison even earlier."
Meanwhile, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said "scrapping short prison sentences" amounts to "effectively decriminalising crimes like burglary, theft and assault".
