I've written about crime for years - this crisis continues to shock and anger me

Champagne, supercars and declarations of support for Keir Starmer and Labour. No, this was not a party fundraiser or a gathering of the well-to-do at Wimbledon, Royal Ascot or the British Grand Prix. It was the abhorrent scene as thousands of prisoners were released early. Few crises sum up the state of modern Britain better.

The sight of a convict jumping into a £200,000 Lamborghini parked outside HMP Pentonville became the symbol of Labour's disastrous early release scheme and repeated failures under the Conservatives.

After Dame Anne Ower's scathing report was published on Tuesday showing how close the prison system came to collapsing, the Tories insisted they had responded to demand for criminals to be locked up for longer.

Yet their plans to expand the prison estate didn't keep up with their sentencing reforms and an increase in 20,000 police officers. In fact, Labour claim only 500 additional places were introduced.

And Downing Street's "default position was to do as little as possible as late as possible" as cells began to run out.

This led to emergency measures being triggered, including prisoners released early and others held in police cells, as justice chiefs feared a total breakdown in law and order with police unable to arrest criminals.

Dame Anne, a former prisons watchdog, said ministers and justice chiefs did the "minimum necessary" to "avoid meltdown, at the last possible moment".

The crisis became so acute "the marker of success was 'whether everyone got a bed last night'.

Now, Labour Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is legislating for the early release of killers, rapists, drug dealers and burglars.

The sentencing reforms are, Labour believe, the only way to prevent a repeat of the past two years.

Ministers are introducing a "progression model" where prisoners are freed after just a third of their sentence. They will spend another third under house arrest and will only then be put on licence and let into the community.

Convicts are essentially being rewarded for good behaviour behind bars.

Criminals sentenced to more than four years behind bars will be let out after serving just half of their jail term, while punishments of less than 12 months will be abolished in most cases.

Only the most extreme offenders will be refused the right to leave prison at the halfway point

Ministers say the reforms are needed to tackle prison overcrowding.

A renewed focus on community sentences will improve convicts' rehabilitation whilst simultaneously lowering the population behind bars, Ministry of Justice insiders believe.

But the controversial measures have sparked fury among victims' families, who fear the Government is once again taking the side of criminals rather than protecting them.

The heartbroken parents of a four-year-old girl killed by a speeding driver in a stolen car, Glenn and Becky Youens, told the Daily Express when the policy was announced: "We've been told these measures are necessary to "manage prison populations," but what about managing the impact on victims' families? Where is the justice for us?

"Early release only adds insult to injury. It sends a message that even the most serious crimes can be met with a shrug and a ticking clock. Meanwhile, those left behind are the ones serving a real life sentence."

The proposals, first outlined by former Tory Justice Secretary David Gauke, will save around 9,800 places.

And Labour wants to introduce another 14,000 prison places by 2031 - costing taxpayers £4.1 billion.

But the proposed cap of 95,000 prison spaces - identified in the Independent Sentencing Review - "will still be a challenge for the prison service".

Nigel Farage - currently ahead in the opinion polls - said prisoners, under a Reform government, could be sent to El Salvador, Kosovo or Estonia as part of a drastic programme to find 10,000 spaces.

Mr Farage also said his party would build five new low-security 'Nightingale' prisons on Ministry of Defence land, creating 12,400 spaces for lower category offenders'.

Reform is also proposing to create 10,400 places by transferring foreign prisoners to their country of origin. In exchange, the UK would be prepared to accept British offenders serving sentences abroad, he said.

And the Tories have focused on the record 10,772 foreign nationals languishing in prisons and the security crisis behind bars.

Almost half of overseas offenders have been locked up for violent and sexual crimes, analysis of Ministry of Justice figures has revealed.

The MoJ has, for the first time, confirmed 2,083 foreign thugs are behind bars for violent offences. Another 1,159 are on remand.

Meanwhile, 1,731 sex offenders have been locked up, including 1,382 convicted rapists, predators and perverts. The rest are also on remand.

Tory Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick is calling for every convicted foreign national to be deported.

Countries that refuse to take back their nationals must face visa sanctions, Mr Jenrick said.

Foreign aid should also be suspended if countries refuse to take back criminals, the top Tory said.

And Mr Jenrick has also drawn into sharp focus the security crisis behind bars.

There are strong fears that terrorists will succeed in delivering guns and explosives by drones to inmates. He has described this as a national security crisis, as some drones are big enough to help inmates escape.

Mr Jenrick also wants "highly-trained teams" to be armed with tasers, stun grenades and baton rounds to prevent prison officers from being kidnapped or murdered by terrorists.

He told the Daily Express: "Under Starmer, we now have record numbers of violent and sex offenders from abroad clogging up our prisons.

"Instead of introducing emergency measures to let out prisoners early, Starmer should be deporting these vile foreign offenders to free up prison space.

"If countries fail to take back their nationals, he must suspend aid and visas until they do.

"If these individuals didn't want to be deported, they shouldn't have committed a serious crime in the first place. Keeping our people safe is the first duty of any British government."

But Justice Secretary Ms Mahmood told the Daily Express: "The last Conservative Government ran our prisons disgracefully.

"They added less than 500 cells to the prison estate over fourteen years, released over 10,000 prisoners early under a veil of secrecy, and brought our jails close to total collapse on countless occasions.

"This Government is fixing our prisons, for good.

"Days after taking office, we took the emergency action required to stop our prisons from collapsing.

"We have already opened 2,400 new cells since coming into office, on track for 14,000 by 2031. And we are reforming sentencing to ensure we can always lock up dangerous offenders and keep the public safe."

Dame Anne warned how Labour's plan to end the crisis behind bars may put even more pressure on the Probation Service.

This will alarm many victims, as many are already petrified dangerous criminals are going unsupervised and are free to terrorise and inflict more misery.

The Ministry of Justice has shifted pressure from an "overstretched prison service onto an equally overstretched probation service".

Dame Anne confirmed the Probation Service was already reducing supervision in over 40,000 cases.

This meant prolific offenders who are most likely to be recalled to prison were not being monitored as much.

And, addressing Labour's plans, Dame Anne said: "Those challenges will be even greater if the proposals of the Independent Sentencing Review are accepted.

"As well as a presumption against short custodial sentences, the review recommends an 'earned progression' model so that most of those with standard determinate sentences will be able to serve two-thirds of custodial sentences in the community, with intensive supervision in the first third of this period.

"The pressure on an already stretched probation service is therefore likely to increase."

To address this, Ms Mahmood secured £700m in funding from Chancellor Rachel Reeves for a mass expansion of tagging devices.

So, to prevent a total breakdown in law and order, ministers have essentially decided to let more criminals live in the community.

Confidence in the justice system is already terminally low, with record court delays, weak sentencing (exacerbating fury over the Gauke reforms) and violent thugs being allowed to run riot.

If we see an increase in crime committed by people let out early, or by offenders who were not sent to prison in the first place, it will shatter the already fragile trust.

And we could soon be in the perverse situation where criminals are toasting Keir Starmer again.