The beaming prisoners were greeted with hugs and kisses as they emerged from the metal doors of HMP Manchester and into the arms of waiting friends and family after being released under the government's early release scheme.
By lunchtime on Tuesday, 14 prisoners had been released from the prison, known locally as Strangeways, with several confirming they had been released early. Two said they had been serving time for drug crimes.
Several cars waited for hours parked on the double yellow lines outside the jail; the smell of hashish emanating from a parked black Audi.
As a man emerged, a group of nine women and children ran to meet him, hugging him just outside the steel doors before the group walked away together. Later, another woman jumped into a man's arms as he left the prison.
One former inmate, smiling as he walked through the doors and met friends waiting for him, said he had been released from his sentence seven months earlier.
Another man said he had also been released early after serving five years for “crime.”
Juggling four black bags full of possessions, he shouted: “It's corrupt. They beat people. He is corrupt and abusive. There is no mental health.” Then a waiting friend took him away.
But a man who had earlier gotten into a waiting car, confirming that he had been discharged earlier, said with a wry smile: “It's not that bad.”
Some 1,100 inmates were due to be released on Tuesday as part of the government's policy to free up prison space.
Outside HMP Swaleside in Kent, Daniel Dowling-Brooks, 29, said: “Great Keir Starmer” as he celebrated with his friends, his mother and his sister, who picked him up in a convoy of a white Bentley and a Mercedes G- black wagon.
He told reporters he had served seven years for kidnapping and grievous bodily harm of someone who owed his friend money, and had been released seven weeks earlier.
He said he regretted his crime and planned to spend more time with his two children and friends.
He said the first thing he would do is “go to McDonald's, go to my hostel and follow all the rules.”
“I feel good, man,” he added. “I feel happy.”
Outside the same prison, a man was reunited with his children, who ran to hug him, while another prisoner was also greeted with a hug as he was picked up in a black Rolls-Royce by a group of men in matching hoodies.
The releases came as Starmer said he “shares the public's anger” at scenes of offenders celebrating their early release from prisons.
His official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister shares the public's anger at these scenes and believes it is shocking that any government would inherit the crisis it has when it comes to our prisons.
“But to be clear, there was no option not to act. If we had not acted, we would have faced complete system paralysis.
“Courts cannot send criminals to prison, police cannot make arrests and rampant crime on our streets, so the government clearly cannot allow this to happen.”
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