More than 80,000 prisoners freed under 'unsatisfactory' early release scheme

More than 80,000 prisoners were let out of jail early under a scheme which may have damaged public confidence in justice, figures showed today.

The early release scheme was scrapped earlier this year after the then-justice secretary Jack Straw branded it "inherently unsatisfactory".

More than 2,600 (3%) of freed inmates have since been recalled to custody, with 1,234 of these accused of committing more than 1,600 further offences while on early release from prison, the Ministry of Justice figures showed.

Others were recalled after failing to live at an approved address or falling out of touch with the Probation Service.

The End of Custody Licence (ECL) scheme, introduced in July 2007 to deal with chronic overcrowding in prisons in England and Wales, saw a total of 81,578 inmates released up to 18 days before the halfway point of their sentence. The last remaining ECL prisoner went free on April 9.

Outlining plans to scrap the scheme in February, Mr Straw told MPs it was "potentially damaging to public confidence in justice".

More than a fifth of those released were convicted of violence against the person while a further fifth were jailed for theft and handling offences.

The released prisoners include a total of nine who were jailed for four years or more, and almost 16,000 who were jailed for between one and four years, the figures showed.

But the vast majority (56,249) were handed sentences of six months or less.

Altcourse prison in Fazakerley, Liverpool, released the most inmates under the ECL scheme, with a total of 3,545 being let out early.

Prisoners convicted of terrorism, serious violent and sexual offences were not eligible to be released under the scheme.