The public is being “put at risk” by Labour’s plan to expand the number of criminals able to serve some of their sentence at home.

Convicted inmates could be released a quarter of the way through their prison sentence to ease the overcrowding crisis behind bars.

Ministers have brought forward plans to free prisoners on tags and under home curfews by a year.

Convicted criminals are only allowed to spend 180 days tagged at home but from June 3, it will increase to 365 days.

An offender serving a 10-year sentence is currently only eligible for release after four years.

But they will now only have to serve three years behind bars before they are eligible to be tagged.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick warned: “Dangerous criminals – drug dealers, burglars, are to be released a year early on tag from June, under Labour’s new proposals.

“It means an offender, like a drug dealer, sentenced to ten years will only spend three years inside and a year out on tag.

“We’ve already seen the tragic consequences of Labour’s early release scheme, where offenders have gone on to kill.

“Now I don’t pretend that the prison situation is easy.

“But a third of those in our prisons are either foreign national offenders or remand prisoners awaiting trial.

“Labour don’t have a solution. They are not doing anything to solve this issue.

“Instead, they are just releasing prisoners early and putting the public at risk”.

Murderers and terrorists will be amongst those barred from being let out early, as well as criminals convicted of possession of firearms or offensive weapons, child cruelty, stalking, harassment and coercive control.

Category A prisoners who are held in high security jails are also excluded, as are those whose release is determined by the parole board.

A Ministry of Justice source said: “Home detention curfews have been in place for 25 years and were praised by ministers in the last Tory government.

“This government is fixing the justice system the Tories left in tatters. We are deporting foreign offenders far faster than the Conservatives ever did. Robert Jenrick ought to remember that – after all, he was the immigration minister responsible for their underperformance.”

Sources also said that the individual circumstances of a prisoner’s offending would be taken into account as part of a rigorous risk assessment.

They said the final decision on whether an inmate could be freed onto an HDC would be at the discretion of the governor who could overrule it.

New Ministry of Justice figures on Monday revealed there were just 625 empty cells in the entire adult male estate.

The prison population has ballooned to 84,088, with a capacity of 84,713.

MoJ sources had not been expecting any further emergency measures – but stressed they were closely monitoring the situation.

Ministers are relying on its sentencing reform to prevent prisons being overwhelmed.

At the height of the crisis last year, there were just 80 cells left, forcing justice chiefs to use police cells.

Fewer criminals will be jailed and will instead be given community sentences, under Labour’s plans.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has admitted criminals serving long prison sentences could be let out early under Labour’s sentencing overhaul.