Towards the end of a sentence, prisoners assessed as “lower risk” – typically those held at Category D (open) prisons, though some Category C prisoners can also qualify – may be allowed out of prison on day release or overnight release. The purpose of releasing prisoners temporarily like this is to help them maintain or rebuild family ties, find work in the community, and generally reintegrate with society ahead of their eventual release. Many open prisons expect prisoners to work in the community, often for local employers or charities, as part of their sentence plan.
There are several types of ROTL. Resettlement licence covers day release and overnight release used to prepare for life after prison – sorting out housing, opening a bank account, attending job interviews. Facility licence covers education, training or accredited programmes that aren’t available inside. Compassionate licence covers exceptional circumstances, such as a family funeral or a medical appointment. Paid work release, where a prisoner holds down a job in the community while still serving their sentence and returning to prison each night, is one of the more visible forms and is used particularly at Category D training prisons.
Being let out of prison, even temporarily, is not something granted lightly. Before a prisoner is given their first ROTL, their behaviour in custody, attitude to their offence, risk of reoffending and risk to the public are all assessed by prison staff and probation, with police and other agencies involved in higher-risk cases. Anyone convicted of a sexual or violent offence, or serving an indeterminate sentence, faces extra scrutiny and additional approval stages under the rules. Any failure to stick exactly to the terms of a licence – coming back late, going somewhere off-limits, testing positive for drugs or alcohol – will make future ROTLs harder to get, and can mean a return to closed conditions.
ROTL failures of any kind are rare: Ministry of Justice figures put the success rate at consistently well over 99% year on year, across several hundred thousand individual releases annually. That said, a small number of high-profile failures – including well-publicised absconds from open prisons – have kept ROTL under sustained media and political scrutiny in recent years, and the rules around it, and how consistently they’re applied, have shifted more than once as a result. For the detail of what’s changed and why, and how the argument has played out politically and in the press, see ROTL & Early Release Policy Changes.
The current rules are set out in HMPPS’s Release on Temporary Licence Policy Framework, which you can read in full here.