(Bloomberg) --
The U.K.'s plan to release low-risk inmates early to limit the spread of the coronavirus has been put on hold after six inmates were allowed to leave too soon because of an administrative error.
Although the men would have been eligible for the early release program, they were let out too early due to a human error in calculating the point at which they should have been released from prison, the Ministry of Justice said in a statement.
The program has been temporarily paused to tighten the administrative system and is expected to resume next week. None of the men had been convicted of violent offenses and they returned to the prison compliantly.
“We have strengthened the administrative processes around the scheme to make sure this does not happen again,” a prison service spokesperson said via email on Saturday.
The government announced plans last month to prepare for a virus outbreak in prisons after a number of officers and inmates tested positive for Covid-19. The early release program is designed to ease overcrowding.
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Hundreds more prisoners may be given electronic tags and curfews under the proposals, which were planned before the coronavirus outbreak and are being reintroduced by the government.
Prisoners jailed for at least three months but less than four years can be considered for release under the tagging proposal. The plans also include “cohorting” inmates who may be infected by grouping them together in one area to reduce the risk of infection to others.
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