Public confusion around new rules for the early release of prisoners has led to the largest criminal law team in the region inviting those with concerns to contact them for advice.

GHP Legal, which has offices in Oswestry, Wrexham and Llangollen, says members of its dedicated Criminal Law and Prison Law Team will be on hand to provide clarification and assistance about the Early Release Scheme.

Explaining the Government’s answer to the prison capacity crisis, Criminal and Prison Law solicitor, Alex Mackenzie, said:

“Previously, most people who have received prison sentences after committing a crime spend half of their sentence in Prison before being released on licence. There have always been exceptions to that rule for certain types of sentences and those exceptions will still apply.

“For others whose sentences fall within early release eligibility, they are now able to leave prison earlier but must abide by strict conditions and work with the Probation Service for the remainder of their sentence. If they fail to comply they can be sent back to Prison on recall.

“Rather than spending half of their sentence in prison, many prisoners will now be released, subject to licence, after serving 40% of their sentence. So, 40% will be the general rule and will apply to most prisoners who previously would have spent 50% of their sentence in Prison. It does not apply to those who would spend longer than 50% in prison already.

“The exceptions include those prisoners whose sentence is 5 years or more, and those who are serving a sentence of 4 years or more for some violent offences. There is also another list of offences and the new rule will not apply to anyone serving for these.

“At GHP Legal we understand that there is a lot of confusion around how the new early release scheme works and we realise that this makes serving a prison sentence harder. We are therefore available to provide individual advice and assistance in all matters of Criminal and Prison Law and are happy for prisoners and their family members to contact us.”

Alex Mackenzie, Criminal solicitor with GHP Legal.