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Andy Burnham announces PC Harper's killers will stay behind bars as Labour is forced to change early release scheme

Licence recalls, where offenders are returned to custody for breaching conditions or posing fresh risks, surged 28 per cent to 51,419 in the year ending March 2026

Prisoners freed under the government's 2024 early release programme are being sent back to prison at an alarming pace, according to prison governors.

The scheme, designed to tackle chronic overcrowding, has created what one Midlands-based governor described as "a revolving door," adding: "The churn is what stresses me out."

Another governor in northern England told the BBC: "We see the same people coming back after being released early and reoffending again, or breaking their [release] rules."

Prime Minister Andy Burnham responded to public fury over the prospect that PC Andrew Harper's killers, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, could qualify for the next wave of releases by announcing sweeping changes to the October scheme.

More than a million people had signed a petition demanding the pair stay behind bars.

Speaking on Sunday, Mr Burnham confirmed that anyone found guilty of unlawful killing would be barred, acknowledging this would keep "hundreds" of additional prisoners locked up.

Under the revised Sentencing Act provisions, those convicted of murder, manslaughter, serious child sexual offences, rape, grooming, indecent assault and causing death by dangerous driving are also excluded.

The justice secretary is expected to outline further details in a parliamentary statement on Tuesday.

Nearly 87,000 people remain in prisons across England and Wales, with barely 2,000 places to spare, a capacity rate exceeding 97 per cent.

Governors report that single-occupancy cells are routinely housing two inmates, forcing people to eat and use an open toilet in cramped quarters.

One northern governor warned: "Prisons are already dealing with an infestation issue and this could make it worse."

Overcrowding has also intensified gang rivalries, as inmates from competing regions are increasingly placed together in the same facilities.

Decades of neglected maintenance have compounded the problem, leaving countless cells unusable.

Another governor told the national broadcaster: "We've got to alleviate the pressure somehow, or we will break."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman told GB News: "Less than one in seven prisoners in custody are on recall, and it is a vital tool to keep the public safe.

"This government inherited prisons in crisis but we are fixing this, reforming the length of time people spend on recall to reduce the prison population, building 14,000 new places, launching the biggest ever expansion of tagging, and giving victims a say in the strict licence conditions of offenders."

The government pointed to plans for 14,000 new prison places, a major expansion of electronic tagging, and reforms to the time offenders spend on recall.