Criminals sentenced to less than a year behind bars could avoid jail by collecting bins and filling in potholes instead, according to reports.
The radical plans have been proposed to ease overcrowding in prisons, as part of an independent review commissioned by the Labour justice secretary Shaban Mahmood, a report in The Sun has said.
With the country’s prisons overcrowded, the review suggests magistrates and judges should consider more suspended or deferred sentences, as well as community punishments.
Offenders may also have to commit to treatment plans to address their underlying alcohol and drug issues, in addition to a set amount of community service.
Convicts sentenced to community service are often sent to volunteer at charity shops, rather than at private companies.
But under the new proposals, Ms Mahmood will reportedly work with private companies, like supermarkets, to give criminals jobs such as stacking shelves or working on the checkout.
Convicts who do not get jail terms would also be assigned jobs by councils. This could see them do jobs such as filling in potholes, collecting bins and scrubbing graffiti, it has been claimed.
A government source told The Sun: "With prisons so close to collapse, we are going to have to punish more offenders outside of prison.
"We need punishment to be more than just a soft option or a slap on the wrist. If we want to prove that crime doesn't pay, we need to get offenders working for free - with the salary they would have been paid going back to their victims."
Ministry of Justice data forecasts jails will run out of space again early next year, despite the opening of a new 1,500-bed jail HMP Millsike, near York, in March.
The government began freeing thousands of inmates early last year to curb jail overcrowding, by temporarily reducing the proportion of sentences which some prisoners must serve behind bars from 50 per cent to 40 per cent.
Further releases of small numbers of prisoners through November and December meant the total number of inmates fell by nearly 3,000 between the September and the end of 2024, when it stood at 85,618.
But since the start of 2025, the number has been on an upwards trend and grew by 1,938 in March.
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