The plan is to release around 5,500 people early in September and October.
The drastic measure decided by the British government targets prisoners who have served 40 percent of their sentence. Those with sentences longer than four years' imprisonment and sex offenders will not be included.
Neither will those convicted of domestic violence and similar crimes be released, according to BBC.
Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood tells parliamentarians that the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak left a time bomb when he resigned in July.
If the bomb explodes, if our prisons run out of space, the courts would cease to function, suspects could not be detained, and the police could not make arrests, she says.
In short, if we do not act now, we face a possible collapse of the entire justice system.
All those released will be monitored in one way or another, which may involve electronic tagging or curfews. At the same time, victim support authorities have warned that some victims are completely unaware that their perpetrators will be released early.
Official statistics show that the number of people in prison stood at 88,521 in England and Wales at the beginning of September. That is around a hundred places from the prisons being fully occupied, according to BBC.
