Hundreds of criminals let out of jail yesterday are just the first wave of Labour's 'prison break-out bonanza', the public was warned last night.

Up to 50,000 offenders a year are likely to be freed early under Prime Minister Andy Burnham's soft-justice programme.

The Conservatives said the Government's scheme posed an 'acute threat' to public safety.

In a mammoth expansion of Labour's previous early release initiative, those being freed will, from December, include violent criminals handed more than four years' imprisonment. The first 700 inmates were freed from jails across England and Wales yesterday with many thanking the PM for their new freedom.

At HMP Brixton in south London, serial thief David Elliott declared: 'I'm gonna go stealing again.'

One prisoner leaving HMP Durham said: 'Justice system, what justice system? Thank you, Andy Burnham.'

Another walking out of HMP Cardiff who was asked if he had a message for the Labour leader said: 'Thank you very much and don't get me back here again, bro.'

Thousands of criminals a month will be eligible for early release once the scheme is fully up and running.

Shadow Home Secretary, Conservative Chris Philp said: 'This is just the start, and a tsunami of criminals will be swept out of prison and on to our streets by this Labour government.

'As the months go by more and more serious criminals will be released. The public will be less safe because of Burnham's prison break-out bonanza. It will pose an acute threat to public safety every single day.'

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the Government was releasing offenders 'who will probably go back and end up terrorising their victims'.

Yesterday's first day of Labour's new programme involved offenders jailed for up to 19 months.

But between October 13 and early next summer, the scheme will be applied to nine further groups of offenders who were handed increasingly lengthy sentences.

The Government refused to disclose how many prisoners are projected to be let out early in total.

But Ministry of Justice documents showed that the scheme will be a 'new permanent approach' and early releases will 'continue on a business-as-usual basis'. It added: 'For context, approximately 4,500 offenders are released from custody in a typical month.'

The majority of those criminals will benefit from the new early release terms, brought into law by the Sentencing Act earlier this year. It means up to 50,000 offenders a year are likely to be freed early.

By comparison, Labour's first attempt at an early release scheme saw more than 70,000 criminals freed between its launch in September 2024 and the end of March this year. That programme, known as SDS40, was leading to between 3,000 and 4,000 early releases every month.

Its replacement is far broader in scope, with some serious violent offenders becoming eligible for the first time.

From yesterday prisoners previously due to serve 40 or 50 per cent of sentences handed down by the courts will be freed after serving just a third. 

As the scheme is rolled out in the coming months, criminals convicted of certain violent or sexual offences who were previously only eligible for release two-thirds of the way through their sentence will instead be let out at the halfway stage.

Life-sentenced prisoners, such as murderers, and those serving extended sentences will not be part of the programme.

Other categories of violent and sexual criminals are also excluded after public outcry led to a series of U-turns by Mr Burnham over the summer.

Criticising the latest wave of early releases, domestic abuse commissioner Dame Nicole Jacobs warned that survivors would 'be looking over their shoulder and living in fear because the Government and our criminal justice system has failed to protect them'.

'It is frankly shameful that as the scheme begins – which ministers have had months to prepare for – I still have no assurance that the danger perpetrators pose has been properly considered and assessed with meaningful input from victims and the specialist services supporting them,' Dame Nicole said.

There were 87,499 prisoners held in England and Wales on Monday, with 1,556 spare places, according to MoJ figures.

The releases came as one police leader told the Daily Mail that some forces have decided they no longer have the resources to arrest suspects for all bail breaches.

The senior officer said: 'We are already seeing a massive increase in bail breaches and it's going to be onerous as more come out of prison early. For some small forces it is acute.'

Last month the head of the National Police Chiefs Council Gavin Stephens told the Police Superintendents Conference that the expected cost to policing to monitor more offenders in the community had gone up from initial estimates of £300-400million to £480million.

The bill has risen due to a massive surge in bail breaches, with a staggering 3,000 electronic tag breaches by bailed suspects every week across England and Wales.

In 97 per cent of those cases, the courts are failing to punish those breaches by remanding offenders into custody or changing their bail conditions. In the remaining 3 per cent of cases, bail conditions are even reduced, sending a message to defendants that they can carry on offending.

Despite forces pleading for the extra £480million, no extra money has been provided.

In a bid to monitor offenders and curb their movements, there has been a surge in police applying for domestic abuse protection and criminal behaviour orders. But in some areas up to 75 per cent are being refused or delayed as courts do not have capacity to deal with them, leaving officers powerless to protect victims.