The number of prison spaces available for new prisoners has declined such that emergency measures were brought in by the Government to tackle the issue in the short term. Operation Early Dawn is a contingency measure that means defendants waiting for a court appearance could be held in police cells for longer until prison space is available in the event they are remanded in custody. It was last used by the Conservative Government in May 2024. The crisis developed such that Operation Early Dawn was developed by the new Labour Government to address capacity concerns in the longer term.
The new plan to address the capacity crisis is to temporarily reduce the proportion of the custodial element of a sentence from 50% to 40%. These changes will comes into force in September and October 2024 and prisons have already started providing information to prisoners about their amended release dates.
Certain offences are excluded from this plan, which include terrorism, sex offences, serious violent offences of four years or more, and offences connected to domestic abuse.
Licence conditions will apply in the normal way and any prison on licence risks being recalled if they breach their licence conditions.
Read more from us on prisons here.
Legal disclaimer: Articles are intended as an introduction to the topic and do not constitute legal advice. The information contained herein is accurate at the date of publication but please note that the law is ever changing and evolving. If you require advice in relation to any matter raised in this article please contact a member of the team.