The number of offenders behind bars soared to a six-month high despite Labour’s controversial decision to release thousands of inmates last year to ease overcrowding.
Ministers have triggered emergency measures again to ease overcrowding (Image: Getty)
Prisoners will be held in police cells again after minsters triggered emergency measures because of a fresh overcrowding crisis in jails.
The number of offenders behind bars soared to a six-month high despite Labour’s controversial decision to release thousands of inmates last year to ease overcrowding.
The prison population hit 87,556 on Monday, leaving just 1,284 spaces available, according to new data published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
It has pushed male prisons in England and Wales to 99 per cent capacity, MoJ sources said.
READ MORE: Police stations will hold inmates as prisons overwhelmed by capacity crisis
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is facing a new crisis behind bars (Image: Getty)
Justice chiefs want to use 200 police cells, at a cost of nearly £688 per day.
The Ministry of Justice hopes the opening of a new prison in York will mean Operation Safeguard will only be needed for eight weeks.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The new Government inherited a prison system in crisis and took the necessary action to stop our jails from running out of cells.
“We have always said that would only be a temporary relief, while we build 14,000 new prison places and reform sentencing to ensure our prisons reduce reoffending, cut crime and make our streets safer.
“Operation Safeguard is a well-established process that will help manage temporary capacity pressures, ahead of the new 1,500 capacity HMP Millsike opening in a few weeks’ time.”
Operation Safeguard was triggered by the last government in February 2023 and was in place for the majority of the following two years.
Ministers ended its use when Labour decided to release thousands of prisoners early.
Some 1,750 convicts were released in both September and October under emergency measures to ease the overcrowding crisis behind bars.
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Criminals were let out after 40% of their sentences, rather than halfway through, in a desperate bid to prevent the system collapsing.
Prisons last year had just 80 cells left, meaning police could have been forced to stop arresting offenders.
Prisons Minister James Timpson has already ruled out releasing thousands more criminals early, meaning Labour’s hopes of avoiding more crises will hinge on sentencing reforms designed to send fewer offenders to prison.
Reform MP Lee Anderson said: “The prison population in England and Wales has reached a six-month high of nearly 90,000. Facilities in England and Wales are at 98% capacity, forcing the early release of hardened criminals.
“Recent analysis shows that overall imprisonment for foreign nationals is 27% higher than for British citizens.
“This is not just a problem of prison spaces, but a problem of unbridled illegal immigration. Reform UK will end the population explosion and reclaim our prison system.”
Almost 10,500 foreign criminals are locked up in England and Wales, Ministry of Justice figures show.
Shadow prisons minister Kieran Mullan said: “Labour is failing to grip the challenges facing our prisons.
“After months of waiting they finally acted on our calls to get more people out of prison who are waiting for their day in court.
“That delay is costly and even now, they aren’t making full use of our courts or getting more foreign offenders out of our prisons. If they fixed those issues, we would have thousands less people in prison.”
Ministers were previously forced to activate Operation Early Dawn, when defendants were held in police custody and only brought to court if prison places were first confirmed as available.
