A breakdown in law and order could occur on Britain’s streets within days as prisons become too full to take in new inmates, a senior police officer has said.
Police cells are becoming overcrowded with arrested suspects and convicted prisoners and could be used by looters and criminals, sources claimed.
The comments came as Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood prepares to announce emergency measures this Friday to free up prison space across England and Wales.
There are 700 vacancies in adult male prisons, and the Bureau of Prisons would be “in trouble” if that number fell below 300, officials said. The system needs a minimum of 1,425 vacancies to function smoothly and effectively.
Police cells will run out of space as prisons are full and cannot take in new inmates, a police source said. “Without more inmates, police cells will run out of space quickly. It is estimated that many units will run out of space in three days or less.”
“And obviously this is a totally unacceptable situation because it creates a situation where the arresting officers are not going to be able to take the people they arrest anywhere.”
It is argued that these situations can quickly deteriorate and be exploited by criminals who know they will not be detained by police.
“That will become clear very quickly,” the police source said, “and of course that in itself can have an impact on the behaviour of the general public and especially criminals. So it’s a very serious situation and it takes us into uncharted territory and we have to avoid that at all costs.”
Prison sources said urgent measures needed to be taken to avoid the system collapsing before the end of August. “If nothing is done it will be a huge occupational worry come the August bank holiday,” the source said.
“If prison capacity is insufficient, police cells will fill up rapidly, courts will be forced to postpone cases, police will be unable to arrest dangerous criminals and unchecked crime on our streets will put the public at risk,” the Ministry of Justice said.
The announcement about the early release plan had to be made this week so that probation officials had enough time to deal with the thousands of released inmates. “We can’t make the announcement much later than tomorrow because that would not allow time to do a thorough review before we have capacity issues,” a prison official said.
The Prison Service has had occupancy rates above 99% for almost two years, the source claimed, “which puts huge pressure on reducing reoffending, on our ability to carry out meaningful activities and of course on staff. Issues such as safety in terms of violence have certainly worsened and it has become much more difficult to run the prison.”
With a prison system already stretched to its limits, even a relatively small problem like a bedbug infestation could trigger a prison crisis. “We’re extremely vulnerable to a shock within the prisons,” the source said. “It could be a big, high-profile shock, like the civil unrest of 2011. [following the killing of Mark Duggan]”You have things like prison riots, for example, and you have things that are actually more mundane, like a bedbug infestation, where you have to close down a wing and fumigate it for two to three weeks.”
A key measure Mahmoud will announce will be the automatic release of “standard definitive” prisoners after they have served 40 percent of their sentences, government sources said.
The strategy calls into question already overburdened probation departments and will anger many crime victims who question why convicted criminals are allowed to avoid serving large parts of their sentences.
Keir Starmer said he was “deeply frustrated” by the prison overcrowding crisis as a Labour government prepares to release more offenders early.
The Prime Minister said the scale of the problem was “worse than we thought”, expressed anger that he had been forced to take emergency action so soon during his time in office and blamed the previous Conservative government for a “total” and “shocking” failure.
