David Blunkett has set out a sea-change in government thinking on the use of prisons to tackle crime.

"We need to be radical. We send more people to prison than almost any other European country, yet reconviction rates are still too high," he said yesterday.

His favoured solution is the creation of special open prisons where prisoners could be held during weekends, but allowed out to work or maintain family connections during the week.

The home secretary will today announce plans for low-risk inmates to be released a month before the end of their sentence, in a bid to cut overcrowding in prisons.