Hundreds of prisoners will be freed in Scotland as part of a broader emergency response to ease the burden of overcrowded prisons across the United Kingdom.

The Scottish Government are set to release as many as 390 prisoners under their new early release scheme to tackle prison overcrowding. Passed in November last year, the Prisoners Early Release Act sees prisoners who are sentenced to less than four years to be released after serving 40 per cent of their sentence,

A long-running crisis of overstuffed jails and backlogged courts has reached a critical level. View on euronews