As predicted, new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced plans to release thousands of prisoners early. Labour will reduce the minimum sentence term spent in prison from 50% to 40%. 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…

Criminal justice liberals are over the moon. Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“In this moment of crisis for the prisons system, the incoming government has had the good sense to listen to the advice of its officials and introduce further emergency measures to prevent dangerous levels of overcrowding and the criminal justice system literally grinding to a halt.”

Other left wing NGOs have been stacked up by Labour to issue positive comments. Let’s see how it goes down with the public…