Reid will delay early release of 3,500 convicts to 'save face'

Under secret Government plans, the criminals will be set free on licence two to four weeks before their sentence reaches even the halfway point.

Crucially, the embarrassing announcement, which comes as prisons are at bursting point, is being delayed until the Home Office splits into two separate ministries next month.

This will mean that the Home Secretary, John Reid, who has repeatedly ducked the question of early release and is desperate to preserve his 'tough' reputation, will not have to make it.

Instead, Lord Falconer, who will become head of the new Ministry of Justice on May 9, will take responsibility for the shambles.

Shortly after letting the inmates go free – probably in June – Lord Falconer is expected to 'fall on his sword' handing over his job to someone else, who would start with a clean slate.

As a reward for his part in the face-saving exercise, he could have his Cabinet career prolonged, possibly taking the post of Leader of the House of Lords.

A senior prison source said: 'Everything is being done to ensure John Reid is not the man who has to make this announcement.

'Charlie Falconer has already made it clear the Justice Minister cannot remain in the Lords and that he will have to go. He also said he will consider early release.

'The deal is that he will fall on some sort of sword and make the announcement. It is going to have to be done, because there is no alternative in the long term.'

The exact details of the early release scheme are still being hammered out by officials at the National Offender Management Service, who are frantically working on a number of different scenarios.

Over the past week alone, the prison population has soared by almost 200 to 80,118 – including more than 100 inmates being held in police cells.

Internal figures suggest that, within the next two months, space could be needed for 82,000 inmates, around 1,000 more than currently exist.

To tackle overcrowding, Mr Reid has so far ordered that inmates be housed in police and court cells – at a cost of tens of millions of pounds to the taxpayer – and moved others into open prisons when they would normally have stayed in more secure conditions.

Freeing 3,500 inmates early would provide breathing space until new prison places are built later this year.

Those having their sentences cut would be non-violent criminals including burglars, thieves, drug dealers and fraudsters. Reactingto the plans yesterday, Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said:

'If this is the case it is outrageous that the Government is prepared to endanger public safety by releasing thousands of offenders early and all as a consequence of their failure to address the chronic lack of capacity in our prisons.

'The public will not be fooled by this crude attempt at spin by John Reid to try and pass the buck for this to a minister who will be in his post for all of five minutes.'

Harry Fletcher, of the National Association of Probation Officers, said: 'This is a problem of the Government's own making because of their failure to build extra prison places, their failure to reform sentencing, their failure to fund the probation service.

'They have no alternative but to release offenders early – and face the consequences.'

Under the Home Office split, responsibility for prisons and probation, as well as sentencing and the criminal justice policy, will pass to the new Ministry of Justice.

The Home Secretary will have a beefed-up role co-ordinating counter-terrorism strategy, while keeping responsibility for immigration, policing, yobbish behaviour and ID cards.