Nineteen Years of "Temporary" — Part One

In 2007 a Lord Chancellor started letting prisoners out early and called it a temporary measure. We are still doing it. Nobody has ever compared what happened to the people released early with what happened to the people released on time.

Part one of two. This week: the four schemes, the safety question nobody has answered, the probation service meant to catch it when it goes wrong, and the people released by mistake.

WHAT'S IN IT

• Four early release schemes in three years, under four different names — and the biggest of them arrived as two statutory instruments and a nod

• The National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee, in print, saying the department does not know whether any of it works

• Three numbers that get quoted in this argument, and why all three  ...