'I don’t think this is protecting the public!' Journalist David Shipley discusses the Government’s early release scheme, saying he does not believe it is as safe as ministers have claimed, particularly when it comes to the tracking and tagging of offenders.

Emergency release schemes were always going to be controversial, but if the monitoring and probation technology isn't rock solid from day one, public trust in the justice system is going to take a huge hit

Managing prison overcrowding is an urgent operational challenge, but ensuring 100% compliance on electronic tags and probation supervision must remain the top priority to safeguard local communities.

This raises an important question about how the scheme works in practice, particularly around supervision, tracking and the resources available to monitor people released into the community.

How the hell can anyone feel protected and safe when these criminals are set lose ??? It's insane !!!!

Just to put things in perspective, the Tories released prisoners early (many of whom have had to be recalled). This has all been caused by the Tories' dreadful record on the provision of prisons during their 14 years of chaos. Many more prison spaces are now being created.