More than 200 prisoners have been released early from Armley prison in just seven months under the Government's controversial scheme to ease prison overcrowding.

Ministry of Justice figures show 212 inmates were let out of jail up to 18 days before their sentence was due to end between June last year, when the End of Custody Licence (ECL) scheme was introduced to free up cell space, and the end of January this year. Of the total 14 were released in January.

Nationally, more than 18,500 prisoners have been released early in the past seven months, including 2,386 in January.

Meanwhile, the prison population in England and Wales has risen to a record high of 82,006, leaving the system just 21 beds below full capacity.

Nick Herbert, Shadow Justice Secretary, said: "The longer this disastrous early release policy goes on, the more the public are put at risk. Nearly 500 violent criminals were released early in January alone, and more than 100 prisoners who breached their licence conditions are still on the run."

Mr Herbert has committed a future Tory government to ending the early release scheme and funding 5,000 extra prison spaces - on top of the 15,000 spaces being created by the Government over the next five years.

Launching the Tories' prisons policy this week, the MP said inmates would have to "earn" their release through good behaviour, hard work and making reparations to their victims.

He said: "Under Labour, re-offending by criminals has risen, jails are in crisis and over 18,000 prisoners have been released early on to the streets. A new approach is desperately needed.

"We will create prisons with a purpose, with a new focus on rehabilitating prisoners before and after their release. By driving down reoffending, we will break the cycle of crime and make Britain a safer place."

Labour said Mr Herbert's plans were "uncosted". The Ministry of Justice defended the early release scheme, a spokeswoman saying four per cent of those released had been recalled to prison and "just" one per cent were believed to have reoffended during the ECL period.

She added: "Those prisoners who present the highest risk to the public are excluded from consideration for early release. All prisoners released on ECL would have to have been released anyway in a maximum of 18 days' time."

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