Texas-style points system for prisoner early release being considered

Ministers are considering introducing a Texas-style points system for prisoners where they get credit for good behaviour.

The government will be conducting a sentencing review in the coming weeks and as part of that, they will be looking at examples from around the world.

Ministers at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) are particularly interested in Texas as an example, Sky News understands.

"Smart sentencing" has seen prisoners in the US state being able to reduce their jail time by earning credit for good behaviour.

Taking courses aimed at tackling the underlying causes of offending, such as drugs and alcohol, can also earn them points.

Led by Texas's Republican administration, the state has managed to reduce its prison population using the points system.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is understood to be planning to visit the US this year to see how the UK could reduce its overcrowded prison population and high rate of reoffending.

Currently, prisoner release dates are determined in part by the risk they pose to the public.

Reducing reoffending and the prison population has been one of the key issues of the Labour government, with James Timpson, chief executive of the cobbler firm that hires ex-offenders, being made prisons minister.

The government has undertaken a controversial early-release scheme to alleviate overcrowding as the prison population hit a record high of 88,521 earlier this month.

About 1,700 prisoners who have only served 40%, instead of 50%, of their sentence were released on 10 September and thousands more are anticipated to be freed early in October.

Offenders jailed for breaching restraining orders were excluded from the scheme to ensure domestic abusers did not end up back in the community early.

However, a Ministry of Justice source revealed on Wednesday 37 people were released in error because their offences for breaching restraining orders were wrongly logged under repealed legislation.

This meant these cases were not flagged for exemptions, designed to prevent those guilty of certain types of crime from being released.

Five prisoners have not yet been returned to jail but most have been brought back into custody.

One of those mistakenly released is understood to have allegedly reoffended, accused of "intentionally touching" a woman. He was recalled to prison.

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A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "Public safety is our first priority. That is why we took decisive action to fix the broken prison system we inherited and keep the most dangerous offenders locked up.

"This included blocking the early release of domestic abuse offences such as stalking and controlling behaviour.

"We are working with the police to urgently return a very small number of offenders - who were charged incorrectly and sentenced under repealed legislation - to custody.

"The convictions remain valid with offenders monitored since their release and will soon be back behind bars."