Offenders receiving a custodial sentence of more than one day and less than two years serve half of their term in the community. This process is called being on prison licence.
Offenders on prison licences are supervised by either ourselves or the National Probation Service, depending on the severity of risk that they pose. We supervise people who are considered to pose a low or medium risk of committing a serious crime.
The post sentence supervision is linked to the Through the Gate initiative, which involves people being released from prison being supervised by probation.
There are six standard prison licence conditions, which include individuals having to:
- be supervised by probation
- live at a specified address or an Approved Premises (historically called a bail hostel)
- comply with an order which prevents them from travelling outside the UK
Additional licence requirements can be added, which then must be agreed by either the prison governor or the Parole Board. These will take a victim’s considerations into account, and may also include:
- a curfew
- exclusion from a specific area
- programmes and courses
- drug testing