Government halts early prison release for serious sexual offenders

The UK government has stopped plans to free some sex offenders early from prison. The early release scheme was created to deal with serious overcrowding in British prisons. At first, sexual offences were not excluded from the programme. The Prime Minister changed this during his second week in office after hearing concerns from victims' groups. Around 700 offenders had been due for early release this autumn. Survivors of grooming gangs and opposition politicians have called for sexual offenders to be permanently excluded. The government says the most dangerous offenders were already barred from the scheme. Those who are released will face electronic tagging, movement restrictions and round-the-clock monitoring. A review was expected to confirm which other categories of offender would also be excluded.