Essex lecturer says early release of domestic abusers is "very worrying" for victims
Katerina Hadjimatheou warns the "majority of domestic abuse victims won't be aware if their abusers are coming out of prison"
A lecturer from the University of Essex has warned of the concern domestic abuse victims will be feeling as more than 1,000 extra prisoners are expected to be freed early, including domestic abusers.
Today the Government puts the latest stage of its plan to ease jail overcrowding into action.
Around 1,100 inmates will be released as the policy is expanded to those serving sentences of five years or more.
It follows the first release of around 1,700 prisoners from jails across England and Wales on September 10.
Lecturer, Katerina Hadjimatheou tells us the majority of domestic abuse victims "won't know if their perpetrators are coming out of prison."
"But this has always been the case", says Ms Hadjimatheou.
"It's only victims of offenders who are sentenced to more than 12 months who have an automatic right to be informed about their release. Even those victims have to opt in to receive that information.
"Overall, this means the victims of people with a history of domestic abuse who are being released early, won't know they're being released."
"There's going to be a lot of uncertainty for victims of domestic abuse. They'll probably be trying to contact police officers who dealt with their case or just be feeling very very stressed and worried", she says.
In July, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans to temporarily cut the proportion of sentences inmates must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said overcrowding had pushed jails to the "point of collapse".
A steady stream of eligible prisoners have been leaving jails under the changes ever since.
The policy is expected to be reviewed within 18 months.
The prison population of England and Wales hit a record high of 88,521 on September 6 this year, just days ahead of the first wave of releases.
The figure stood at 87,028 on October 18.
Last month the Prime Minister defended freeing criminals, including some convicted killers, early from prison as he blamed previous government inaction for forcing him into the move.
Sir Keir Starmer said he had "no choice but to cut the amount of time prisoners would serve" amid urgent efforts to tackle the jail overcrowding crisis.
The Government said the policy does not apply to those convicted of sex crimes and terrorism.
Efforts have been made to stop domestic abusers from being freed early but the terms of the plan mean not everyone with a history of such incidents is excluded, as it depends on the length of their sentence and type of offence.
Ms Hadjimatheou says it should be about the "risk these perpetrators could cause to the public".
"I don't think it makes sense to have arbitrary decisions to exclude certain kinds of offenders from early release. Some people who are in prison for domestic abuse are going to be less dangerous than others."
"The decision about who to release early has to be made on the basis of how dangerous that person is."
Those convicted of manslaughter will be excluded if they have been sentenced to more than four years.
Last week , Ms Mahmood announced more measures to ease overcrowding in jails and cut the court backlog by doubling magistrates' sentencing powers.
The move means magistrates will be able to hand down prison sentences of up to a year - twice the length they are currently permitted to order.