Only 83 places left in male prisons
The number of spare prison places in male jails fell below 100 on Tuesday, the lowest figure on record.
There are just 83 spaces left in male jails, making it the closest the prison service has come to running out of space, although Ministry of Justice (MoJ) officials are hoping that they will not have to introduce further emergency measures.
The MoJ has already activated Operation Early Dawn, under which defendants are kept in police cells until prison spaces become available.
The problems have been worsened by a surge in arrests over the Bank Holiday weekend at festivals and events including Notting Hill Carnival in west London.
Sources suggested MoJ officials are confident they will manage without having to activate further emergency measures, known as Operation Brinker.
Operation Brinker is a contingency plan, never before used, under which police forces would be required to hold suspects in their cells for longer than under the current Operation Early Dawn – potentially overnight and even beyond 24 hours – before they can be sent to court.
It is only triggered when the prison service is so close to running out of places that officials do not believe it has sufficient space to take all those being held in police custody. The overall prison population hit a record high of 88,945 on Tuesday, with an occupancy rate of 99.9 per cent.
‘One-in, one-out system’
Operation Brinker would mean operating a “one-in, one-out system”, where the prison service would say it only had a set number of places each day. Suspects would have to be driven around the country in secure vans to find a free cell, with officials monitoring national data on capacity to ensure every space is being used.
Police fear that if Operation Brinker is introduced it could limit their ability to arrest suspects as they run out of police cells backed up with people who should be in jail.
The beginning of the week is traditionally the peak time for prison places to be filled. It is understood that the number being released from prison has yet to catch up with the number of people arrested over the weekend including the 330 as violence broke out at the Notting Hill Carnival.
They are currently being held in custody for offences including assault, possession of guns, knives or drugs, theft, drug dealing and sex crimes. Officials believe some of those arrested will be released on bail rather than remanded, freeing up spaces.
‘That’s disgraceful’
Sir Keir Starmer used his Downing Street speech on Tuesday to say the Government had to undertake daily checks on the number of prison places to “make sure we could arrest, charge and prosecute people quickly” during the recent riots.
“That’s disgraceful,” he said. “No prime minister should ever be in that position when trying to deal with disorder. That’s what we inherited. That’s what we will fix.”
Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has introduced an early release scheme from Sept 10 that will see thousands freed 40 per cent of the way through their sentence, rather than halfway.
It is expected to reduce the prison population by some 5,500, giving the Government time for a major review of sentencing and bringing more prisons online.
A prison service source said: “It is touch and go whether we can reach Sept 10, but we believe we are out of the woods for another week. There will be enough people bailed and released for the rest of the week to mean there should be enough spaces.”
An MoJ spokesman said: “The new Government inherited a justice system in crisis and has been forced into taking difficult but necessary action to ensure we can keep locking up dangerous criminals and protect the public.”