1,100 inmates set for early release – as review considers tougher punishments outside prison
Tougher punishments outside prison are being considered as part of a government review into sentencing.
The review will be launched on Tuesday by Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood in a bid to ease overcrowding in the prison system.
Led by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke, the review will be activated on the same day that around 1,100 inmates are set to be released early as part of the government’s policy to free up prison space.
Latest figures show there are just over 2,000 free spaces in prisons across England and Wales – and they are expected to reach critical capacity again by July.
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Mr Gauke will explore tougher punishments outside of prison while ensuring there remains enough capacity in the system to incarcerate the most dangerous offenders, the government has said.
Among the alternatives that will be examined are community sentences and fines.
Methods used by other countries are being assessed for inspiration, including the US, where Texas has used good behaviour credits to reduce sentences.
Nudge technology, sobriety tags and home detention curfews will also be looked at in the review, with watches and apps used to encourage offenders to comply with certain conditions.
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‘There wasn’t one space on the prison wing’
Mr Gauke, who argued there was a “very strong case” for abolishing jail terms of six months or less when he was justice secretary in 2019, said it was clear “our prisons are not working”.
“This review will explore what punishment and rehabilitation should look like in the 21st century, and how we can move our justice system out of crisis and towards a long-term, sustainable future,” he added.
Analysis: Rescuing prison system will take much more than a review
Bringing in former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke to review prison sentencing seems like a shrewd move from Labour.
UK prisons are full and the new government’s initial attempts to deal with that by releasing some prisoners early was met with hostility from the opposition benches.
If a Tory, with expertise in the brief, makes recommendations on how to reduce the prison population, it buys some much-needed political cover for a policy that could be tricky to sell to the public and the papers.
But what Mr Gauke’s appointment can’t cover up is that the broken UK justice system needs cash and at the forthcoming budget it may get cuts instead.
The current justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has been making the case behind the scenes and even wrote a letter to the prime minister arguing for more money.
That’s because getting back from the brink of full prisons will take much more than a sentencing review.
It will require change across every dysfunctional aspect of the justice system, from the overwhelmed probation service to the court backlogs to the slow progress of prison building.
Departmental cuts will make that necessary reform almost impossible to achieve.
So while Mr Gauke may bring answers and cross-party support, plans without money behind them are unlikely to make much impact, and it will still be Labour that gets the blame.
The review will also specifically consider whether current sentencing for crimes committed against women and girls fits the severity of the act and ask whether more can be done to tackle prolific offending.
Alongside the sentencing review, the government has also committed to creating 14,000 extra prison places and outlining a 10-year capacity strategy later this year.
Mr Gauke is stepping down as a trustee of the Prison Reform Trust while carrying out the review.
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Early prisoner release sparks homelessness fears
Ms Mahmood has already taken steps to try to reduce the prison population in England and Wales, announcing plans in July to temporarily reduce how much of their sentences inmates must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%.
About 1,700 prisoners were released from jails across the two countries from 10 September in a bid to cut overcrowding.
The latest inmates to be freed early will be released from Tuesday, with expanded eligibility to include those serving sentences of five years or more.
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Ms Mahmood, who is also the Lord Chancellor, said Labour “inherited prisons in crisis, within days of collapse”.
“This review, along with our prison building programme, will ensure we never again have more prisoners than prison spaces,” she added.
Mark Day, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, said the “current capacity crisis has bought our criminal justice system close to collapse” and emergency measures “are not a long-term solution”.
“We urgently need to get to grips with runaway sentence inflation which has contributed to chronic levels of overcrowding and driven prison numbers and our use of imprisonment up to an unsustainable level,” he added.
The findings of the sentencing review will be submitted by next spring, while the results are expected to take effect by March 2026 at the earliest.
The founder of a cryptocurrency exchange whose namesake was tied to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) was found guilty of wire fraud and money laundering in a California court.
In a March 12 trial in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, a jury found AML Bitcoin creator Rowland Marcus Andrade guilty of two felony counts as part of a scheme to defraud investors. Authorities initially filed criminal charges against Andrade in June 2020 in parallel to a civil case filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against the AML Bitcoin creator and the NAC Foundation, for which he was the founder and CEO.
“Mr. Andrade’s outrageous lies lured and scammed individuals into investing their hard-earned money into a new cryptocurrency with fabricated features,” said Linda Nguyen, the IRS Criminal Investigation Oakland Field Office Special Agent in Charge. “But there is nothing advanced about this scheme. Rowland Marcus Andrade stole money from innocent people and used it to further his personal wealth.”
Rowland Marcus Andrade jury verdict on March 12. Source: PACER
The SEC’s civil case against Andrade was notable for the involvement of political lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who served four years in prison between 2006 and 2010 following his conviction on mail fraud, conspiracy to bribe public officials and tax evasion. A judge agreed to stay the SEC lawsuit in January 2021 until the conclusion of Andrade’s criminal case, suggesting that it may once again proceed soon.
The June 2020 indictment alleged the NAC Foundation claimed a cryptocurrency that AML Bitcoin would launch — it never did — would comply with money laundering and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations. Andrade used those claims for an initial coin offering between 2017 and 2018. According to the information presented at his trial, the AML Bitcoin creator diverted more than $2 million in proceeds from the sale of the platform, spending it on real estate and luxury automobiles.
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“Andrade falsely claimed, among other misrepresentations, that the Panama Canal Authority was close to permitting AML Bitcoin to be used for ships passing through the Panama Canal when no such agreement existed,” said the Justice Department.
The AML Bitcoin creator is scheduled to return to court for a sentencing hearing on July 22, having remained free on a $75,000 bond since 2020 with some travel restrictions. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the wire fraud count and 10 years for the money laundering count.
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The United States Senate Banking Committee elected to advance the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act in an 18-6 vote.
None of the amendments proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren made it into the bill, including her proposal to limit stablecoin issuance to banking institutions.
“Without changes, this bill will supercharge the financing of terrorism. It will make sanctions evasion by Iran, North Korea, and Russia easier,” Warren argued.
Senator Warren argues for amendments to be included in the bill. Source: US Senate Banking Committee GOP
Senator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, characterized the bill as a victory for innovation. The Senator said:
“The GENIUS Act establishes Common Sense rules that require stablecoin issuers to maintain reserves backed one-to-one, comply with anti-money laundering laws, and ultimately protect American consumers while promoting the US dollar’s strength in the global economy.”
The bill must still pass a vote in both chambers of Congress before it is turned over to President Trump and ultimately signed into law.
However, the Senate Banking Committee advancing the bill represents the first step in clear, comprehensive legislation requested by the crypto industry.
Senator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, leads the hearing. Source: US Senate Banking Committee GOP
Related: The GENIUS stablecoin bill is a CBDC trojan horse — DeFi exec
GENIUS Act gets overhaul to feature stricter provisions
Senator Bill Hagerty, who introduced the bill in February 2025, defended the legislation against the proposed amendments from Senator Warren, arguing that the bill already includes provisions for consumer protection, Anti-Money Laundering, and crime prevention.
On March 10, Hagerty announced that the bill was updated to include stricter reserve requirements for stablecoin issuers, AML provisions, safeguards against terrorist financing, transparent risk management procedures, and stipulations for sanctions compliance.
According to Dom Kwok, founder of the Web3 learning platform Easy A, the newly added provisions will make it harder for foreign stablecoin issuers to comply, giving US-based firms a competitive edge.
Senator Bill Hagerty defends his bill from proposed amendments. Source: Senate Banking Committee GOP
Attorney Jeremy Hogan said the GENIUS Act signals an impending merger of the traditional financial system with stablecoins.
“The legislation is explicitly making plans for stablecoins to interact with the traditional digital banking system. The ‘merge’ is being planned,” the attorney wrote in a March 10 X post.
During the March 7 White House Crypto Summit, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explicitly said that the Trump administration would leverage stablecoins to protect the US dollar’s global reserve status.
Magazine: Bitcoin payments are being undermined by centralized stablecoins
Bankers and their allies in the US Senate are pushing back against the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act over fears that stablecoins will disintermediate banks and erode banking market share.
According to an article from American Banker, the bill requires 60 votes to pass in the Senate, meaning that at least seven Democrats will have to vote with Republicans to push through the Act.
This could prove a difficult proposition, as US Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of crypto’s staunchest political critics, is proposing an amendment prohibiting tech firms from issuing stablecoins. Warren wrote:
“If these firms want to engage in payments, they must partner with, or facilitate transactions among, regulated financial institutions. But this stablecoin bill breaks that status quo by green-lighting big tech companies and other commercial conglomerates to issue their own stablecoins.”
Digital assets continue to be a disruptive force in finance and banking due to near-instant settlement times and cheaper transaction fees, which significantly reduce the burden of cross-border payments and introduce peer-to-peer transactions.
Page one of the GENIUS Act of 2025. Source: US Senate
Related: The GENIUS stablecoin bill is a CBDC trojan horse — DeFi exec
Stablecoins: The way forward for USD in the 21st century?
The GENIUS stablecoin bill was introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty on Feb. 4 as a comprehensive regulatory framework for tokenized US dollars.
Shortly after the bill was introduced to the US Senate, Federal Reserve Bank Governor Christopher Waller said non-banks should be allowed to issue stablecoins.
Waller argued that stablecoins could expand payment use cases, particularly in the developing world, due to their cost-savings and efficiency.
Stablecoin fees vs. legacy payment processing solutions. Source: Simon Taylor
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told an audience at the Economic Club of Washington DC that the bank may enter the stablecoin business — likely launching its own dollar-pegged stable token.
During the first White House Crypto Summit on March 7, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US will use stablecoins to extend US dollar dominance.
Overcollateralized stablecoin issuers are collectively the 18th largest buyers of US government debt in the world — putting these firms ahead of countries like Germany and South Korea.
By adopting pro-stablecoin policies and promoting stablecoin usage worldwide, the US government can use stablecoins as a sponge to soak up inflation and protect the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency.
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