Chris Mason: Prison release plans spark fears but for ministers it is the only option

Criminals leave prisons every day.

But Tuesday is different; it is on a different order of magnitude - with many, many more times as many people walking beyond the gates behind which they have been incarcerated and on to the streets than would normally ever happen in one go.

The fact it is happening isn’t a surprise.

Labour stands accused of doing things in government it didn’t advertise in advance when the party was trying to woo you during the election campaign.

Take the campaign about the winter fuel payment for a start.

But on the issue of letting prisoners out early, it was mentioned before polling day.

I asked Sir Keir Starmer about it in the week of the election and he said it would be necessary "in all likelihood".

The last government also set criminals free before they had originally intended to for the same reason.

There aren’t enough prison places.

Capacity has come within 100 places of being exhausted in England and Wales in recent weeks.

It currently stands at around 350, I am told - ie pretty much full.

So, ministers argue, they have no other option.

I am also told that by setting out their plans earlier in the summer, the Probation Service and others have had chance to prepare for about 1,700 being set free today, putting in plans for each of them.

But there are people working within the Prison Service and the Probation Service who have contacted me deeply worried about what is happening.

One worker in the Probation Service, which has the job of "supervising offenders realised into the community from prison" as the government puts it, told me they were worried - despite ministers insisting otherwise - that "dangerous" people would be released early.

Someone else, who works in the Prison Service and had seen the BBC’s reporting last week from inside Pentonville Prison in London, wrote to me to express their fear that members of rival gangs would be released from prison on Tuesday at the same time and could end up in fights with each other in the prison car park moments after walking free.

And what about the safety of the rest of us?

Imagine if one of those released early goes onto to reoffend, when a court had originally decided they should have still been inside when they then commit another crime.

Government sources acknowledge "of course there are always risks" when offenders are released, but they hope they have done as much as they can to mitigate those risks.

Let’s see.

And this is just the start.

A similar number of offenders, probably slightly more, will be released early next month too.