Plans to rebrand automatic early release of prisoners as ‘supervised reintegration’ to persuade the public that it is a safe practice have been branded a ‘deception’. Experts on an SNP justice commission published their findings last week, effectively calling for the phasing out of shorter jail sentences. Among other proposals was ditching the term ‘automatic early release’ in favour of ‘supervised reintegration’ in a bid to tackle fears that criminals are being freed without any safeguards to stop re-offending. ‘Rebranding automatic early release doesn’t change the reality that violent offenders will be free after serving only a fraction of their sentence. ‘We consider the language must make clearer that, while a release process would be automatic, it would still be managed.

Source: Daily Mail February 12, 2026 12:39 UTC