Controversial plans to release thousands of prisoners early were approved in the Commons yesterday as figures showed a record number of weapons, drugs and other illicit items were smuggled into jails last year.

MPs signed off the Government’s early release measure, designed to ease the prisons overcrowding crisis, despite concerns it could become permanent and lead to a ‘softer’ approach to tackling crime.

It came as official figures showed 95,899 items – also including alcohol and mobile phones – were seized by prison staff in the year to April.

This was up by a third from the year before, laying bare the crisis engulfing England and Wales’s overcrowded and understaffed prisons. Drug seizures alone jumped 44 per cent – from 14,724 to 21,145 – while weapons confiscated rose 24 per cent – from 9,400 to 11,641. Seizures of mobile phones surged 36 per cent, from 7,837 to 10,669.

Assaults on staff jumped by nearly a third – to 9,847 – as more than 40 per cent of prisons were given a bad rating. Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults rose 24 per cent (from 15,099 to 18,788).

The figures will fuel concerns that many inmates are out of control and continuing a life of crime behind bars. The crisis has been exacerbated by a near-breaking point prison population amid staffing shortages.

The Government’s new law reduces the time prisoners must spend in jail before they are automatically released from half of their sentence to 40 per cent.

The move, which does not apply to those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse and other violent crimes, will see around 5,500 inmates released by October.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood insisted it was necessary during a Commons debate, telling MPs that ‘our prisons are in crisis’ and that the inmate population remains ‘within a few hundred places of collapse’.

She added: ‘We now know that my predecessor warned 10 Downing Street of the perils of inaction, but rather than addressing the crisis, the former prime minister left us a timebomb, ticking away. If we do not act now, and that bomb goes off, our prisons will reach capacity and the justice system will grind to a halt.

‘The courts would have to stop holding trials, the police would be unable to make arrests, with criminals free to act without consequence. The public will be put at risk.’

All offenders released early will be subject to strict licence conditions, she told MPs, and can immediately be recalled.

She insisted there wasn’t time to build new prisons and that the reduction in time served would be reviewed after 18 months. But former home secretary Dame Priti Patel and ex-security minister Sir John Hayes criticised the government for not including a ‘sunset clause’ stating when the measure would end.

Dame Priti said the Government needed to be clearer that the ‘measure will not be permanent’, adding: ‘I have grave concerns… about public safety and security.’ Sir John said: ‘My constituents, and I expect constituents of those across this House, will be outraged by the idea that some of those people are now going to be let loose.

‘I accept the previous government should have done more. But this Government should look at urgent prison building.

‘We were able to build Nightingale hospitals at a stroke [during the Covid-19 pandemic]. Why can’t we have Fry prisons built as at least a temporary measure?’

He added: ‘A sunset clause would mean that the measure had to come back to this House for further consideration.’

But MPs voted in favour of the new measure by 323 to 81, a majority of 242. Yesterday’s Ministry of Justice figures showed the prison population was 87,129 at the start of April this year, up from 81,822 the year before.

At the beginning of this month it stood at 87,726. The maximum capacity of prisons in England and Wales is around 88,890.

Of 119 jails in England and Wales, 35 were of ‘concern’ with a further 15 of ‘serious concern’.

The number of prisoners in overcrowded conditions increased for the third consecutive year.

Of last year’s 21,145 drug seizures, 5,308 were for cannabis, 4,819 for ‘psychoactive substances’ and 547 for cocaine.

Nine prisoners escaped from jail in the 12 months to March 2024, one of whom remained free 30 days after escape. This was up from eight escapes in 2023.

Of 79,000 offenders who were either released, received a non-custodial sentence or given a warning in July to September 2022, around 21,000 went on to re-offend within a year.