Two thousand criminals are to be released early from jail to ease the prison overcrowding crisis, under plans being prepared by the Justice Secretary.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton, QC, has been forced to draw up proposals to open the gates as the eight-month overcrowding crisis deepens. Under the plan, up to 2,000 prisoners serving less than four years would leave jail early. Those considered for release are likely to be burglars, fraudsters and drug dealers. Offenders convicted of violent or sex crimes would not qualify.

Last night prison staff were bracing themselves for another surge in the numbers held in the 141 jails in England and Wales after police arrests over the weekend. Six sets of court cells were on standby to hold offenders in case there was not enough space in prisons and in emergency cells at police stations. It is estimated to have cost £30 million since last October to hold prisoners in police and court cells.

Whitehall sources said there was still “tremendous sensitivity” within the Government about early release but also a growing recognition that it was unsustainable to hold hundreds of offenders in police and court cells.

Ministers are particularly worried about the effect the scheme could have on public confidence in the criminal justice system and the Government’s record on law and order.

In an attempt to reassure the public, offenders would be risk-assessed by prison staff before release. They would also be placed under some form of supervision by probation staff and subject to recall if found breaking the terms of their release licence.

Ministers would use these conditions to insist that the plan is not an “executive release”, in which prisoners are freed without any conditions.

The plans have been outlined to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, who are said by Whitehall sources to have recognised that the Government has run out of options for tackling the growing prison population. The scheme is expected to be announced to MPs on Thursday, after Prime Minister’s Questions tomorrow and while Mr Blair is at the EU heads of government summit. However, the Prime Minister could still veto the plan as he has done with earlier similar schemes. But Whitehall sources said that the current crisis had deepened in recent days with more than 500 locked out of jail a week ago and no sign of fewer people being admitted. The prison population reached a record 80,977 on Friday, including 439 in police and court cells.

The surge in numbers has forced the Ministry of Justice to make desperate attempts to increase from 400 to 600 the number of police cells available each night for prisoners. But while chief constables have said that they are willing to help to make available extra cells daily, they have been unwilling to provide the full 200.

They have argued that they need the cells to hold suspects arrested for alleged crimes. “We cannot keep on doing this,” a police source said last night. Prison governors have also been ordered to let inmates transfer to open prisons, which still have some spare capacity, at an earlier stage in their sentences. Senior prison managers have made clear that they will not allow “trebling up” – placing three offenders in a cell designed for one. They are concerned that this risks provoking disturbances.

The speed with which the crisis has overtaken the Ministry of Justice is highlighted by comments made by Lord Falconer when the new entity started in May. He said he was not in favour of early release to deal with overcrowding. Two weeks ago, David Hanson, the Prisons Minister, said he did not anticipate bringing forward early release measures. “We are not in the mood to have an early release scheme, and the Lord Chancellor has basically indicated that at the commencement of the Ministry of Justice.”

Charles Bushell, the general secretary of the Prison Governors’ Association, said he recognised that some people would object to early releases but added that public money was at stake. “These people are also taxpayers, who are paying through the nose – we reckon over £30 million since last September – simply and solely to ensure that a minister does not have to make an unpalatable decision.

“What we have done over an extended period of time is to enact more and more legislation, locking up more and more prisoners for longer and longer without first ensuring that we have got the spaces to hold these people.”

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