HUNDREDS of inmates have been freed in just two months under Scotland’s latest “get out of jail early” scheme to tackle prison overcrowding. The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) says 52 inmates were freed in May, a further 59 in early June and another 127 later the same month. Eligible inmates are now automatically released after serving 30% of their sentence – down from the previous 40% in an attempt to alleviate the prisons crisis. Separately, figures show 614 prisoners serving sentences of less than four years were released early from Scotland’s jails in the six months to April 30, under emergency early release measures. But the measures have done little to ease the pressure, with Scotland’s prison population at around 8400 inmates — nearly 600 over capacity.