Met chief Sir Mark Rowley says Government freeing prisoners earlier to avoid 'dangerous for public' crisis

Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley said the Government was being forced to free prisoners earlier to avoid a situation that would be “really dangerous for the public”.He stressed that ministers were having to adopt the “least worst option” of earlier releases amid warnings that if they did not jails would be full, leading to paralysis in the courts and police officers unable to arrest suspected offenders as there would be no place to detain them.New Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood was on Friday unveiling emergency action to stop the criminal justice system imploding, with some inmates expected to be freed after serving 40 per cent of their sentence, rather than half.Sir Mark told ITV’S Good Morning Britain: “The Government have got a situation where there is no easy solution.“Prisons are very close to full and filling up.“The worst possible thing would be for the system to block.”He explained further: “If the system blocks in prisons, if they get completely full that kicks back into the courts and to what we do and that’s really dangerous for the public.