Prisoners due for early release to ease overcrowding

The emergency early release of nearly 1,000 prisoners from Scotland’s jails will get under way on Tuesday.

Dozens of inmates are to be freed at the start of a process that will continue until next April.

The latest releases come almost a week after MSPs voted by 66 to 51 to approve the plan.

Scotland’s prison population reached a new record high of 8,431 last Wednesday and an estimated 990 inmates are scheduled to be released early in successive waves over the coming six months.

Only inmates serving sentences of less than four years will be eligible. Prisoners convicted of sex offences and domestic abuse will be excluded.

The Scottish government says it is necessary to ensure the safety of staff and prisoners.

Opposition parties say it is the result of mismanagement of the criminal justice system by SNP ministers.

The prison population fluctuates daily but has repeatedly hit new highs in recent weeks, according to the Scottish Prison Service (SPS).

This rise in numbers comes despite the early release of hundreds of inmates to free up space.

More than 300 people, half of whom were serving sentences for violent crimes, were freed in February and March after prison bosses warned they could not take any more arrivals.

In addition to the record numbers inside Scotland’s jails, the SPS said that more than 120 people on custodial sentences had recently been managed in the community through home detention curfews.

Scotland’s prisons were designed to hold 7,805 inmates, meaning they are now accommodating more than 600 additional people – enough to fill another prison the size of HMP & YOI Grampian or HMP Shotts.

The Prisoners (Early Release) Scotland Act 2025 came into law earlier this year.

The act changed the point of release for all eligible short-term prisoners from 50% to 40% of their sentence.

That provided some relief for prisons in the face of overcrowding but populations have since continued to rise.