The authorities has run out of jail locations and has needed to ask police to make use of 400 cells to make up for the shortfall.
Prisons Minister Damian Hinds advised MPs there had been an “acute and sudden increase in the prison population” in latest months and, because of this, the Operation Safeguard contingency plan had been launched for the primary time since 2007.
He stated the federal government had “long anticipated” the rise on account of bringing in further measures to deal with crime, and had been “planning ahead” for it.
But Mr Hinds blamed strike motion by the Criminal Bar Association, saying it had led to extra individuals being held on remand and with courtroom hearings now returning to regular, the federal government was “seeing a surge in offenders coming through the criminal justice system, placing capacity pressure on adult male prisons in particular”.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice added: “We are experiencing an unprecedented enhance within the variety of offenders coming into prisons within the north of England, partly on account of the influence of the pandemic and the barrister strike motion over the summer time months.
“The public would rightly expect us to take the action necessary to create the extra spaces we need, and so we are working with the police to use a small number of cells in the short term so we can continue to put offenders behind bars.”
But shadow justice secretary Steve Reed accused the federal government of leaving “murderers and rapists to roam our streets”, claiming that had “cut the number of cells that they should be locked up in”.
He stated: “Despite reports of rape and sexual offences hitting record highs, the Conservatives cut more than 10,000 prison places since 2010, while the Justice Secretary (Dominic Raab) is more interested in the fight to save his job than the fight against crime.
“Our nation wants a authorities that’s severe about defending victims of crime.”
Source: information.sky.com”