@gh0st16071: Victims ‘forced to relocate’ out of fear of early release prisoners, as Manchester police chief says more than a fifth have reoffended one month on The Ministry of Justice won’t have data to check last month’s electronic tagging rates until January 2027, LBC has learned. Some victims of violent attacks and domestic abuse have moved hundreds of miles across the country to relocate over fears they’re not being protected from early release prisoners. The next wave of around 650 offenders are now due to leave jail after serving just a third of their sentence, to free up space in overcrowded cells. Around 1,300 were freed early during October, in a phased move to making the release policy permanent. Ministers promised “the toughest ever controls” to manage offenders in the community but the government won’t have data to check electronic tagging rates from last month until January 2027 because they are only published every three months. The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has revealed to LBC more than a fifth of the people released early into the city in October have already reoffended. The head of the Met previously said more than 100 tag breaches are also being reported every day in London. Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, chair of the board at domestic abuse charity Refuge, told LBC: “The scheme is not providing the protection to survivors that it's been heralded to. “We've had some survivors who've had to go into refuges out of the area where they live because of the fear that they feel as their perpetrator is released. There was even a survivor that we spoke to who felt like she needed to move overseas. “They're terrified and when they hear that the Ministry of Justice doesn't even know how many people are being tagged, then it just increases their fear level.” Last month, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police told LBC he had concerns about the ability of his force to manage an increased number of offenders in the community. Sir Mark said two or three early release offenders had been arrested by his officers every week since August and warned that 95 per cent of tag breaches were resulting in no punishment. His force has since scaled back its response to some reports of a tag breach, if it is deemed to be minor and not posing a public risk. Adding to that, Chief Constable of GMP Sir Stephen Watson told LBC: “The fact of the matter is 22% of everybody that's been released [in October] are already back inside in Greater Manchester. “We're talking about highly recidivist people, so I'm not going to stand here and say this is an entirely good thing. This is, of course, a real problem for us. “Whilst we're busy building extra prison space, we need to work with our partners to mitigate the risk to the public. “I just hope that we get to a more rational place where those who should be in prison go to prison and there are spaces to retain them for as long as they deserve.” Before the latest tranche of early release prisoners, survivors of domestic abuse had warned LBC that their lives would be at risk, despite exemptions being put in place for people convicted of rape, manslaughter, death by drunk or dangerous driving, grooming and historic child sexual offences. Victoria Lamberth, who told us in September she was “terrified” of her ex-husband finding her, said today: “The police and the probation teams don't have the manpower to police every breach of their tag. “There isn't enough in place to protect people. I've got a marker on my phone number, so if I call the police because he finds me, they know that there's a marker. But what's that going to do in that moment if he's there? It's not going to do anything.” #earlyreleasescheme #jail #prison #government #victims

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Tuesday 10 November 2026 17:03:18 GMT