Some 5,000 people are expected to be released early under sentencing changes.
The Government has apologised to the family of Pc Andrew Harper as two of his killers remain eligible for early release.
Justice Secretary Alex Norris acknowledged that the decision had “created harm” but said the alternative was seeing prisons cease to function.
Some 5,000 people are expected to be released early under sentencing changes, down from 6,000 after ministers exempted rapists and child sex offenders as part of the scheme to tackle overcrowding in jails.
But two of Pc Harper’s killers, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, remain eligible for early release after their 2020 convictions for manslaughter despite an outcry from the officer’s family that prompted a review of the early release plans.
The 28-year-old police officer sustained fatal injuries while responding to a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in August 2019.
He died after getting caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and dragged down a country road as three teenage suspects fled the scene of the burglary.
The driver of the vehicle, Henry Long, received a 16-year sentence and would not have been eligible for the Government’s scheme, but Cole and Bowers were sentenced to 13 years and are now eligible to be released halfway through their sentences.
Pc Harper’s wife Lissie Harper has expressed anger at the prospect they could be released early, calling it “an affront to justice” and “an utter betrayal”.
His mother, Debbie Adlam, said the family was “bitterly disappointed” by the decision, telling the BBC: “Andrew deserves better than this, and so do we.”
Mr Norris said he understood the family’s “anger” and offered an apology, but added the early release scheme was necessary to avoid the collapse of the prison system.
He told Sky News: “Were we not to make these changes, then we would run out of prison places in this October or November.
“I know that’s difficult. I know that’s created harm, and it’s not Lissie Harper’s fault, and I’m sorry that she’s been put into this situation as a result, I genuinely am.
“But this is a decision we’ve had to take to make sure we have a functioning prison system.”
