Police cells to be used again to hold prisoners as jails ‘close to capacity’
Shabana Mahmood said January saw the highest average monthly growth of the prison population in almost two years as she re-enacted the move.
Police cells will be used again to hold prisoners as jails are running at “close to critical capacity” of more than 99%, the Justice Secretary has said.
The contingency plan called Operation Safeguard has been re-enacted as the number of prisoners in England and Wales reached a six-month high.
This is the highest weekly figure since the population climbed to a record 88,521 on September 6 last year, just days ahead of the first wave of early releases which saw thousands of inmates freed on licence to tackle overcrowding.
In a written statement on Tuesday, Shabana Mahmood said January saw the highest average monthly growth of the prison population in almost two years.
She added that as of Monday, there were 824 places left in the adult male prison estate and that jails were operating at more than 99% occupancy.
“Given the recent increase in demand, it is necessary, and prudent, for me to temporarily reactivate Operation Safeguard to better manage the flow of offenders into the prison estate.
“This is an established protocol that will ensure that HMPPS (HM Prison and Probation Service) and police forces can jointly plan which police cells may be required to hold offenders on any particular day.”
The Lord Chancellor also revealed that finding prisoners an alternative space has happened “hundreds of times” in recent weeks, “far above” the rate seen during normal operations.
“On the night of 10 March, there were 124 no-space lockouts, which is the highest number of business-as-usual (BAU) lockouts on record.”
Up to 200 police cells will be available at any one time to hold prisoners over a day or overnight while a jail space is found for them.
Ms Mahmood said the plan will be under “constant review” and will stand down police cells as soon as they are not needed.
The move comes as a new 458-capacity houseblock at HMP Rye Hill in Warwickshire was opened, and a new 1,500-space prison HMP Millsike is set to open in North Yorkshire in the coming weeks.
But the Lord Chancellor said she expects prison capacity will “remain tight until the new capacity is fully operational”.
The emergency measure also comes just months after the Commons Justice Committee was told the Government’s early prison release scheme would likely create extra capacity to last until autumn 2025.
Amy Rees, director general chief executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, told MPs in November the scheme has “bought us a really decent chunk of time” which ministers could use to set out longer term solutions to prison crowding, and for new jails to come into use.
Ministers have promised to find a total of 14,000 cell spaces in jails by 2031 while an independent sentencing review exploring tougher punishments outside of prison is expected to be published in the spring as part of efforts to curb overcrowding.
