Starmer says state of prisons is 'worse' than he thought and is 'shocked' at situation

The prime minister says the state of prisons is "worse than I thought" as the government attempts to deal with the overcrowding crisis.

"I'm pretty shocked that it's been allowed to get into that situation", Starmer told journalists on a flight to Washington DC for the Nato summit.

The PM was asked if he was surprised by the state of the public finances, to which he replied: "Some of what we've found is shocking, not so much about the finances, but I have to say on prisons. The situation is worse than I thought it was."

He accused the government of being "reckless" with Britain's jails and promised the government will be "saying more" about prisons in "short order".

Reports have been swirling about the action Labour will take to tackle the crisis in jails - ITV News understands by the end of this week the government is likely to decide it will release more prisoners early.

The prison population is currently at 87,453, edging dangerously close to the maximum capacity of 88,864.

The Ministry of Justice projects the population will rise further to hit 99,300 by the end of 2025. While new prisons are being built, they can't keep up with the demand for cells, with only 4,400 new places planned compared to 12,000 more prisoners.

It's likely the new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood will reduce the point at which prisoners with fixed end dates to their sentences can be released to tackle the crisis.

The automatic release point on standard determinate sentences currently stands at 50% of the sentence, but could be reduced to 40%.

Those sentences do not cover the most serious cases like murder and rape, but they do include other serious crimes.

ITV News' Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana understands that Mahmood is likely to exclude two categories if she goes ahead with the reform: sex crimes and serious violence.

Even the controversial decision to lower the automatic release point would only delay the prison overcrowding crisis by 18 months.

Ministry of Justice (MoJ) sources stress the release is on licence and that people can be returned to jail if they break the conditions of their release.

ITV News understands Conservative Justice Secretary Alex Chalk was considering the same change with exclusions.

The previous government under Rishi Sunak triggered emergency measures to tackle the crisis, including allowing some prisoners to be released up to 70 days early.

The End of Custody Supervised License Scheme (ECSL) initially involved inmates being released up to 18 days early. That was then extended to between 35 and 60 days in March, and further extended to 70 days in May.

Sources tell ITV News the plans to lower the automatic release point needed to go alongside an overhaul in sentencing that would see fewer people sent to jail for short sentences.

After his election victory last week, Sir Keir Starmer appointed James Timpson OBE, of Timpson shoe repairs, as prison's minister.

Timpson, who is now a Lord, has advocated for employing former prisoners and reforming the UK's prison system.

The Timpsons boss told a Channel 4 podcast last year that "only a third of inmates should actually be in jail", and the country is "addicted to punishment".

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