LAW ENFORCEMENT
Police cells form part of emergency measures following street riots
Emergency measures to ease prison overcrowding have been activated by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) after hundreds of rioters were charged for their roles in the recent unrest that included the looting of retail stores.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has ordered that defendants waiting for a court appearance across the north of England will be kept in police cells until prison space is available.
The system, known as Operation Early Dawn, will also mean some defendants will be released on bail for several days until a prison space is open.
The measure will be put in place in the North-East and Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, and Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire regions.
Ministers said efforts to “tackle violent thuggery on our streets” had “exacerbated long-standing capacity issues in our prisons”.
Lord Timpson, the Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, said: “We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks. As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating.”
He said the emergency measures would help “manage the pressure felt in some parts of the country”, adding that anyone who poses a risk to the public “will not be bailed” and the police’s ability to arrest criminals would not be impacted.
The MoJ has had to bring forward the use of 567 new prison cells that were earmarked to open at the end of this month to cope with the extra demand on prison space.
More than 300 people have so far been remanded into custody for their role in the violent disorder that erupted after the Southport stabbings in July, with 460 arrests.
Many more are expected to be arrested and charged as police leaders have vowed to track down offenders for “as long as it takes”.
Mark Fairhurst, the chairman of the Prison Officers Association, warned that it would have a knock-on effect throughout the criminal justice system.
“This is all a result of the rioters. Last week we had the biggest influx of new receptions I’ve seen for quite some time. We had 397 new receptions. We only had 340 spaces left in the adult closed male estate, which is feeling the most pressure.”
He said the move would put pressure on police forces, adding: “You’re now clogging up police cells, so they haven’t got the power to arrest people and put them away in a police cell. It has a massive knock-on effect on the entire criminal justice system."
Nev Kemp of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “We are working closely with criminal justice system partners to manage demand in the system and ensure that the public are safe.
“Policing will continue to arrest anyone that they need to in order to keep the public safe, including policing protests and events and ensuring that people are arrested as expected.”
It comes ahead of the launch of an early release scheme to tackle overcrowding. From 10 September, thousands of prisoners will start being released 40 per cent of the way through their sentence rather than halfway through.
It is expected to reduce the number of prisoners by some 5,500 to provide a breathing space for a major review of sentencing and for new prisons to come into operation.
