“I am deeply concerned to hear that 37 prisoners – who were serving sentences for breaching restraining orders – were released in error under the SDS40 early prison release scheme.
“Anyone who breaches a restraining order is likely to be a high risk individual who may be fixated on their victim, undeterred by legal restrictions that have been put in place.
“This kind of error is why I have called on Government to exclude all perpetrators of domestic abuse from the SDS40 scheme, regardless of their conviction.
“Probation should not rely on an individual’s index offence to determine risk but use local intelligence to understand if there is a history of abuse and exempt them from early release on that basis.
“I am encouraged that virtually all offenders released early appear to have been recalled, and efforts have been made to rectify the error so it cannot happen again.
“I expect Probation to make every effort to contact all victims that may be at risk, and I renew my call on Government to exempt all perpetrators with a known history of domestic abuse from the SDS40 scheme.”