Prisoners in England and Wales may soon be required to earn their freedom through the accumulation of “good behaviour credits,” as opposed to being automatically released after a predetermined period, as part of a potential reform being considered by the government.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who recently visited Texas to examine a similar system, has expressed a desire for a “carrot-and-stick” approach to be applied across the prison system in England and Wales. In Texas, prisoners have no access to automatic early release; instead, they can reduce their sentences by earning “good behaviour and good time” credits, potentially serving as little as 25% of their sentence if they behave well and engage in productive work.

Automatic early release was introduced in England and Wales in 1991 for those sentenced to less than four years, and extended to more serious offenders in 2003. Now, up to 70% of prisoners are released automatically. If the changes are implemented, prisoners could earn credits through work, training, or participating in education schemes.

Mahmood mentioned to the Daily Telegraph, “We’ve got to be open to all potential future constructions of sentences. If you’re going to incentivise behaviour, it’s a carrot and a stick. So you can’t leave the current sentencing framework on automatic releases unchanged.”

David Gauke, the former Conservative justice secretary, joined Mahmood on the trip to assess how good behaviour and intensive rehabilitation programs had contributed to reducing prison overcrowding in Texas. The changes in the US have led to a decrease in the number of offenders recalled to jail to 16.6%, compared to the national average of around 68%.

Gauke commented that incentivising behaviour allowed for a more considered approach to assessing prisoners’ behaviour. Many prisoners in England and Wales are currently released on licence after serving 40-60% of their sentences.

The Prison Reform Trust has called for the government to consider abolishing short, fixed-term recalls of 28 days or less, due to concerns that the rising number of recalls is trapping people in the criminal justice system.

An independent sentencing review has suggested that longer jail terms have been an ineffective “kneejerk” policy response by successive governments.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Justice, the prison population in England and Wales has reached 86,941, the highest recorded since 21 October of the previous year, when the government released over 1,000 prisoners to address overcrowding issues.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/feb/28/prisoners-england-wales-earn-early-release-texas-shabana-mahmood