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Prime Minister Andy Burnham has decided to halt the early release program for certain prisoners in England and Wales. This decision was influenced in part by the widow of PC Andrew Harper, who criticized the potential early release of her husband’s killers as “deplorable.” The new policy, introduced under the Sentencing Act scheduled to take effect in September, was designed to ease prison overcrowding by releasing approximately 6,000 offenders at various intervals during their sentences.
The Sentencing Act 2026, recently passed by Parliament, aims to reform how prisoners are sentenced and managed, addressing a critical overcrowding issue in jails. A key aspect of the reform is that many fixed-term prisoners would become eligible for release after serving one-third of their sentence instead of the previous halfway point. Released individuals would then be subject to community monitoring, provided they demonstrate progress toward rehabilitation. Initially, the scheme was to start on 2 September, focusing on inmates serving terms of up to 19 months.
Although Prime Minister Burnham has paused the policy, any permanent cancellation would require a parliamentary vote, which poses logistical issues as Parliament is currently on summer recess. Delay in implementing the scheme, however, risks intensifying the prison overcrowding crisis, with cell capacities nearing critical limits once again. Governors currently face a presumption in favor of releasing inmates under this policy, with probation officers already expressing concern about their ability to manage large numbers of offenders in the community.
The background of this controversy involves PC Andrew Harper, who was tragically killed in 2019 after becoming entangled in a strap attached to a getaway vehicle driven by teenage burglary suspects. Henry Long, Albert Bowers, and Jessie Cole, all teenagers at the time, were convicted of manslaughter and imprisoned in 2020, with sentences of 16 years for Long and 13 years each for Bowers and Cole. Under the new rules, Bowers and Cole could have become eligible for earlier release—potentially by mid-2025—though this is now uncertain following the prime minister’s suspension of the early release scheme. Henry Long’s longer sentence remains unaffected by these changes, meaning he is expected to serve several more years before becoming eligible for release
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