THE NUMBER of inmates leaving Worcestershire's HMP Hewell and HMP Long Lartin early has been revealed. 

Many offenders who would otherwise have been released at the halfway point of their sentence, are now released after serving 40 per cent due to overcrowding.

At HMP Hewell, based in Tardebigge, near Redditch, 20 prisoners are expected to leave prison early in September and October.

However, over at HMP Long Lartin, no prisoners are leaving early.

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The Ministry of Justice expects about 5,500 people across the country will leave prison early between September and October.

Those being released early will be prisoners serving less than four years in prison.

HMP Hewell is a Category B prison, which houses prisoners taken directly from local courts.

However, HMP Long Lartin is a category A, high-security prison, which houses men who, if they were to escape, pose the most threat to the public, the police or national security.

Sentences for terrorism, sex offences, and serious violent offences of four years or more, have been automatically excluded from early release.

There will also be no early release of offenders in prison for domestic abuse-connected crimes.

These include stalking, controlling or coercive behaviours in an intimate or family relationship, or non-fatal strangulation and suffocation or breaching a restraining order, a non-molestation order, or a domestic abuse protection order.

Anyone released will be monitored on licence by the probation service through measures which can include electronic tagging and curfews.

If they are in breach of their licence conditions, they face being recalled to prison.

The new rules will also not apply to most serious offenders, who already either spend two-thirds of their sentence behind bars or have their release determined by the parole board.

Those being released from prison early are those who have a determinate prison sentence.

This is where the court sets a fixed length, meaning the amount of time sentenced is the maximum time the offender could spend in custody, but they will not necessarily spend the whole of this time in prison.