Inmates may be freed early as prisons reach capacity

PRISONERS may have to be released early, Dominic Raab has been warned as jails are set to reach capacity.

The Justice Secretary has already sanctioned measures including the use of police cells as the jail population has grown by more than 4,000 in just a year so that it is now only 600 places short of the maximum capacity of 85,000.

Forecasts project the prison population will continue to rise, causing fears that the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) may have to introduce early release or risk breaching operational caps on numbers agreed in the past two years ago.

“He is refusing to contemplate early releases this time around but he hasn’t any other options,” said a source. The prison population is forecast to rise by a further 10,000 in the next two years

To find ways of ramping up cell capacity, ministers have appointed a “gold commander” for the first time since the Covid pandemic to tackle the problem. This has already led to the MOJ commissioning 150 police cells, of which 26 were used last week under a scheme known as Operation Safeguard. It was last activated in 2007/08.

It is thought a further 250 police cells will be requested but sources warned that this was likely to be a stop-gap measure that could only tide prisons through the next few weeks.

An MOJ spokesman said: “We’re exploring options to accelerate additional capacity, including rolling out hundreds of rapid deployment cells opening in the coming months.”