‘Inevitable things will go wrong’ when prisoners freed early, chief prisons inspector warns
It is “inevitable that things will go wrong” when prisoners are freed early to try to alleviate prison overcrowding, the Chief Inspector of Probation has said.
About 5,500 prisoners in England and Wales are expected to be released earlier than planned in September and October as part of the temporary scheme.
It does not apply to those convicted of sex offences, domestic abuse, terrorism or some violent offences.
Follow live: PM in Paris for talks with Macron
Those released early will serve the rest of their sentence under the “strictest licensing conditions” and will be tagged, the government has said.
But Martin Jones, who became Chief Inspector of Probation in March, said there are “no risk-free options available”.
He said the eight weeks the government has given the probation service to plan for the scheme has given it “at least a fighting chance of getting this right”.
However, he warned the number of offenders being released means some could reoffend when they should have been in jail.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Starmer blames Tories over prisons
He told The Times: “I think it’s inevitable, being realistic about it, that things will go wrong. I wish we could live in a perfect world where that doesn’t happen.
“What I think you should start to see, at least, is that if people have to focus on those, that they start to identify where things go wrong, and they draw lessons from that quite quickly.
“I also think there’s a little bit of a numbers game to some extent, you’re rolling the dice all the time in relation to serious further offences.
“You know, ultimately, if you release thousands of people, a number of those cases will ultimately, sadly, there will be things that will go wrong.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “The new government inherited a justice system in crisis and has been forced into taking difficult but necessary action to ensure we can keep locking up dangerous criminals and protect the public.
“Anyone released into Home Detention Curfew is risk-assessed, faces the strictest licensing conditions and must be tagged.”
Sky News reported earlier in the week there are only 100 spaces left in male prisons across England and Wales.
It is the closest the system has come to running out of places.
Read more:
Plans to make Britain ‘smoke-free’ could see smoking banned in pub gardens
‘Weak’ living standards outlook for middle income earners, thinktank warns
Shortly after becoming prime minister earlier this summer, Sir Keir Starmer approved plans for some prisoners to be let out after serving 40% of their sentence – rather than the usual 50% – which will come into force on 10 September.
In the wake of the nationwide riots after the Southport stabbings, the Ministry of Justice also activated Operation Early Dawn, allowing defendants waiting for a court appearance to be held in police cells for longer until space is available.
But last weekend’s events, including Notting Hill Carnival, have pushed capacity even closer to the maximum.
HMP Fosse Way in Leicester was opened in June 2023. Pic: PA
Sir Keir said on Wednesday, during a visit to Berlin, more prisons will be built to manage overcrowding once the government gets its “hands on the planning laws”.
He said the lack of new prisons is one of the reasons for the current capacity crisis.
The prime minister, a former director of public prosecutions, previously said the decision to release prisoners early “goes against the grain of everything I’ve ever done”.
Labour has repeatedly accused the Conservatives of neglecting the justice system during their time in office, saying prisons were at risk of overflowing.
Crypto entrepreneurs and their families in France will receive enhanced security measures amid a recent rise in crypto-related kidnappings in the country, Politico reported.
According to the May 16 report, the measures include priority access to police emergency lines, home security assessments, and safety briefings from French law enforcement to ensure best practices are being followed.
France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau introduced the security measures as part of a broader effort to counter the recent wave of attacks.
“These repeated kidnappings of professionals in the crypto sector will be fought with specific tools, both immediate and short-term, to prevent, dissuade and hinder in order to protect the industry.”
Law enforcement officers will also undergo “anti-crypto asset laundering training,” Retailleau noted.
Retailleau met with several local leaders from the crypto industry to discuss the measures following three crypto-related kidnapping incidents in recent months.
Two kidnappings and a failed attempt in France this year
The latest incident occurred on May 13, when assailants attempted to abduct the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, CEO of the French crypto platform Paymium. Fortunately, they managed to fend off the attack, which occurred in broad daylight.
The assailants tried to force the pair into a waiting van, but Noizat’s daughter managed to take one of the guns off an assailant and throw it away, local police said.
En plein Paris, un homme a été violenté par des individus cagoulés, habillés tout en noir. Ils tentaient de l’enlever. Un homme a surgi, extincteur à la main, pour les faire fuir. →https://t.co/P0qV6PR40v pic.twitter.com/9f4r2Gi7ho
— Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) May 13, 2025
On May 3, Paris police freed the father of a crypto entrepreneur who was held for several days in connection with a 7 million euros ($7.8 million) kidnapping plot.
Related: SEC hacker sentenced to 14 months in prison
In January, the co-founder of crypto hardware wallet provider Ledger, David Balland, was abducted from his home in central France during the early hours of Jan. 21. He was held captive until a police operation on the night of Jan. 22 secured his release.
Retailleau said earlier this week that he believes the incidents were likely connected.
There have been over 150 crypto-related robbery or kidnapping incidents since 2014, with 23 of those incidents occurring in 2025 alone, according to a GitHub database maintained by Bitcoin cypherpunk Jameson Lopp.
Lopp noted many of these criminals typically identify future victims through social media posts, public conversations, meetups, and conferences.
He strongly advises against peer-to-peer trades — particularly with people you don’t trust — flaunting wealth on social media and wearing crypto-branded clothing.
Magazine: Binance Wallet ‘killing’ MetaMask and airdrops, Chinese RWA tokens
News broke on May 15 that Coinbase was the target of a $20 million extortion attempt after cybercriminals recruited overseas support agents to leak user data for social engineering scams.
While less than 1% of Coinbase’s active monthly users were reportedly affected, the expected remediation and reimbursement expenses range from $180 million to $400 million, as the exchange pledged to repay all phishing attack victims.
Despite the attack on the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, investor sentiment remains optimistic, with the Fear & Greed Index remaining firmly in the “Greed” zone above 69, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Adding to investor optimism, Coinbase saw over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin withdrawn on May 9, marking the highest net outflow recorded in 2025 so far, triggering analyst predictions of a supply-shock driven Bitcoin rally.
Coinbase faces $400 million bill after insider phishing attack
Coinbase was hit by a $20 million extortion attempt after cybercriminals recruited overseas support agents to leak user data, the company said on May 15.
Coinbase said a group of external actors bribed and coordinated with several customer support contractors to access internal systems and steal limited user account data.
“These insiders abused their access to customer support systems to steal the account data for a small subset of customers,” Coinbase said, adding that no passwords, private keys, funds or Coinbase Prime accounts were affected.
Less than 1% of Coinbase’s monthly transacting users’ data was affected by the attack, the company said.
After stealing the data, the attackers attempted to extort $20 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from Coinbase in exchange for not disclosing the breach. Coinbase refused the demand.
Instead, the company offered a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the scheme.
$1 billion Bitcoin exits Coinbase in a day as analysts warn of supply shock
Institutional demand for Bitcoin is growing, as Coinbase, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, recorded its highest daily outflows of Bitcoin in 2025 on May 9.
On May 9, Coinbase saw 9,739 Bitcoin, worth more than $1 billion, withdrawn from the exchange, the highest net outflow recorded in 2025, according to Bitwise head of European research André Dragosch.
“Institutional appetite for Bitcoin is accelerating,” Dragosch added in a May 13 X post.
The outflow occurred as Bitcoin traded above $103,600 and just days after the White House announced a 90-day reduction in reciprocal tariffs between the US and China, easing market concerns and lifting broader investor sentiment.
The 90-day suspension of additional tariffs removed the risk of “sudden re-escalation,” which may help Bitcoin, altcoins and the wider stock market rally due to improved risk appetite, Nansen’s principal research analyst, Aurelie Barthere, told Cointelegraph.
DeFi lender Aave reaches $40 billion in value locked onchain
Aave, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, has reached a new record of funds onchain, according to data from DefiLlama.
In an X post, Aave said it topped $40.3 billion in total value locked (TVL) on May 12. Onchain data reveals that Aave v3, the latest version of the protocol, has about $40 billion in TVL.
Aave is a DeFi lending protocol that lets users borrow cryptocurrency by depositing other types of cryptocurrency as collateral. Meanwhile, lenders earn yield from borrowers.
“With these milestones, Aave is proving its dominance in the Lending Space,” DeFi analyst Jonaso said in a May 12 X post. TVL represents the total value of cryptocurrency deposited into a protocol’s smart contracts.
SEC delays Solana ETF as decisions for Polkadot, XRP loom
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pushed back its decision on a proposed spot Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF), with the cryptocurrency industry now looking to the deadlines for the Polkadot and XRP-based ETFs in June.
The SEC delayed its decision on listing Grayscale’s spot Solana (SOL) Trust ETF on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to October 2025, according to a May 13 filing by the securities regulator.
The decision came the week after the SEC delayed its ruling on Canary Capital’s Litecoin (LTC) ETF, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart wrote in a May 5 X post.
Spot ETFs are key drivers of liquidity and institutional adoption for digital assets. For Bitcoin, the US spot Bitcoin ETFs accounted for an estimated 75% of new investment after launching, which helped BTC recapture the $50,000 mark in February 2024, a month after the ETFs debuted for trading.
While a Solana ETF may generate only a fraction of the inflows of Bitcoin ETFs, it could increase Solana’s institutional adoption in the long term by offering investors a “regulated investment vehicle” that may still attract billions of dollars in capital, Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, told Cointelegraph.
Starknet hits “Stage 1” decentralization, tops ZK-rollups for value locked
Ethereum layer-2 scaling platform Starknet has reached a decentralization milestone laid out by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and is now the largest zero-knowledge rollup-based network by total value locked.
Starknet said in a news release shared with Cointelegraph that it has hit “Stage 1” decentralization, according to a framework Buterin laid out in 2022, which means the network operates with limited oversight or “training wheels.”
Starknet added that the framework was the “gold standard onchain tool for analyzing Ethereum scaling solutions,” and said it achieved the milestone through changes such as creating a security council and censorship-avoidance mechanisms.
While the system still allows intervention from a security council, it has implemented a fully functional validity proof system governed by smart contracts.
Starknet is now the only layer-2 ZK-rollup network to have reached Stage 1 and has grown to be the largest ZK-rollup blockchain with a total value locked of $629 million, just ahead of ZKsync’s $610 million, according to L2beat.
Starknet is the fifth-largest layer-2 network by value locked, with the top four all Optimistic rollup-based, having reached Stage 1 decentralization using fraud proofs.
DeFi market overview
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.
Solana-based memecoin Dogwifhat (WIF) rose over 43% as the week’s biggest gainer, followed by decentralized exchange Raydium’s (RAY) token, up nearly 19% over the past week.
Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.
Terminally ill journalist Dame Esther Rantzen was branded “disrespectful” and “insulting” by MPs during a debate on the assisted dying bill.
The broadcaster and Childline founder wrote to all MPs ahead of Friday’s Commons’ debate urging them to vote for what she called a “crucial reform”.
MPs were voting on amendments made to the bill – the report stage – following months of a committee going line by line through it after being introduced last year by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater.
The bill says people with six months to live who have the mental capacity can request medical assistance to legally end their life.
Dame Esther, who has stage four lung cancer, suggested many MPs who opposed the bill have “undeclared personal religious beliefs which mean no precautions would satisfy them”.
Campaigners opposing the legislation demonstrated outside parliament. Pic: PA
However, in a highly charged Commons session, some MPs took umbrage with that.
Labour MP Florence Eshalomi, who is a Christian and voted against the bill the first time, told the Commons: “This is frankly insulting to disabled people, hard working professionals up and down the country, who have raised many valid concerns about this bill, to have it dismissed as religious beliefs.”
Jess Asato, a Labour MP who, as a child, cared for her grandmother with serious health problems, said Dame Esther “accused those of us who have concerns about the bills as having undeclared religious beliefs”.
“Many colleagues found this distasteful and disrespectful,” said the MP, who previously voted against the bill.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who voted against the bill last year, backed Ms Asato’s criticism as he retweeted her X post saying Dame Esther’s comment about faith was “particularly distasteful”.
Ms Asato’s Commons comment was met with agreement by many MPs who said: “Hear, hear.”
Read more:
What is in the assisted dying bill?
Requirement for High Court judge scrapped
Pro-assisted dying campaigners outside parliament on the eve of Friday’s debate. Pic: AP
‘Clumsy criticism’
Conservative MP Dr Kieran Mullan said there had been some “unhelpful remarks by high profile campaigners”, and while he is not religious he was “concerned to see a clumsy criticism” that those objecting to the bill are doing so because of their “religious beliefs”.
In a dig at Dame Esther’s comments, Rebecca Paul, Tory MP for Reigate, said she is not against assisted dying “in principle” but is against the bill – and wanted to put on the record: “I have no personal religious beliefs.”
The debate saw some MPs on the verge of tears as they described their own experiences of having debilitating conditions, or having family members in pain.
MPs do not have to vote along party lines for the bill.
Kim Leadbeater is the MP who introduced the bill
How did MPs vote?
An amendment tabled by Ms Leadbeater, which “expands the protection” for medical practitioners to clarify they have “no obligation” to be part of an assisted death was passed by MPs.
It also provides legal protections for medical professionals to ensure they are not subject to any kind of punishment for refusing to carry out an assisted death.
Another new clause to allow employers to impose a blanket ban on staff facilitating an assisted death was rejected.
Since the bill was first introduced, there have been significant changes, including the replacement of a High Court judge to sign assisted dying off by a three-member expert panel – on top of two doctors having to approve.
The time at which assisted dying would come into effect was doubled to four years from when it becomes law, if voted through.
Medical colleges pull support
Opponents have argued the bill does not have enough safeguards and is being rushed through.
Three days before the debate, the Royal College of Psychiatrists pulled its support for the bill over the change that will mean a psychiatrist must be on the panel that decides if someone can die.
The next day, the Royal College of Physicians (the largest college) adopted a similar position.
However, supporters argue it is time to change the law, with Ms Leadbeater saying: “If we do not vote to change the law, we are essentially saying that the status quo is acceptable.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway