Early release for scores of prisoners at Wellingborough's HMP Five Wells as inmates freed - some happy, others with concerns

The new Labour government has introduced the early release of some offenders to reduce prison overcrowding but those eligible are not those jailed for serious violent offences of four years or more, sex offences and crimes connected to domestic abuse.

On Tuesday morning (September 10) at HMP Five Wells, more than 50 car parking spaces were left empty to help family and friends collect loved ones as they were released from the G4S-run ‘super prison’.

Carrying their possessions in holdalls and plastic bags, some prisoners looked happy to be outside once more, but others were concerned their early release had left them ill-equipped to life back on the outside.

One 26-year-old prisoner from Uxbridge, who had been serving three years for ‘minor drug offences’, was told on Thursday (September 5) he was to be included in the early release scheme.

He said: “This is a set up to fail. I was told on Thursday I was coming out on Tuesday. To be honest I’d rather be back in there. I’ve got no ID – no birth certificate, no driving licence, no passport.

“The resettlement team has given me a letter to show as ID. I need this to verify myself, but I work in construction, am I going to show them this? I need my passport.”

He was waiting to be driven back to London to visit his probation officer, sign in at the job centre and to stay with his dad where the only option for a bed will be sleeping on his dad’s sofa.

He said: “I’m stressed. They [the prison authorities] should have housed me. I’m going to be sleeping on the sofa.”

Another prisoner from Derbyshire with a broad smile said he was going to be ‘picked up by his wife’ – a car drew up and they embraced.

One inmate from Milton Keynes, who said he had been sent to prison for ‘a domestic case’, was waiting for his mates to pick him up.

He admitted he was ‘surprised’ to be leaving HMP Five Wells three-and-a-half months early from a four-year sentence – he was due to serve 18 months inside – but it was the best prison he’d been in.

Smiling, he said: “It’s an absolute holiday camp. You get an iPad. You are out [of the cell] from 8am to 7pm. You can order from Tesco once a week, from DHL once a week and order pizza from the canteen.”

Inmates said they believed 64 prisoners had been freed on Tuesday from Five Wells.

When contacted, the Ministry of Justice said it was unable to give a breakdown of figures for each prison but more than 1,700 prisoners across the UK have been released, with more due to released in October.

Offenders serving less than five years are being released after 40 per cent of their sentence, rather than the usual half.

It’s an absolute holiday camp. You get an iPad. You can order from Tesco once a week