In england and wales. That policy sees the proportion of sentences which some inmates must serve behind bars temporarily cut from 50 to A0 . But latest government figures suggest more than a quarter of prisoners will go on to reoffend within a year of being released. The problem is there are no guarantees that anybody who is released early will not reoffend, because weve got to do ourjob in our prisons of trying to rehabilitate people. We simply cannot do that if theyre used as Human Warehouses and were overcrowded. We must be given a chance to give people hope. The Ministry Ofjustice says it cannot comment on individual cases but insists that anyone who breaks their Licence Conditions upon release, or who commits further crimes, will be punished, and the government says without the early release scheme, police would not be able to make arrests and the courts would not be able to hold trials. The Prison Population in england and wales has dropped by more than 2,000 in a week following