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British prisons will be full in the coming days. I Lessons learned as authorities this week debate implementing drastic “one in, one out” emergency measures.
Prison officials are considering the plan, codenamed “Operation Blinker,” as a last resort as early release schemes and other controversial attempts to ease overcrowding are being overtaken by the growing inmate population.
The news means that the new government, elected on Thursday, will face an already simmering crisis on its first day in power.
Tom Wheatley, chairman of the Prison Governors Association (PGA), warned the contingency plan would simply “buy time” rather than address the root causes of prison overcrowding.
“It will only delay when we reach capacity,” he said. “Prison chiefs are already moving people around within their prison systems to find the best placement for the inmates they have to house.”
“Get as close to full as possible”
“We’re within 700 seats of the maximum capacity of the adult male facility and it’s close to full capacity.”
Operation Blinker was developed several years ago but has never been used before. I I understand.
The bill would introduce a “one in, one out” system to prisons, where inmates would be transported around the country in secure vans to vacant cells and officials would monitor national data on capacity to ensure all space is used where possible.
A state of emergency could be triggered within days if prison numbers rise further, and the Ministry of Justice is expected to present the new government with a set of emergency policy options to prevent prison populations from reaching crisis levels.
Labour has not announced its immediate action plan if it wins power in Thursday’s general election but has not ruled out emergency measures. The party has pledged to launch a sentencing review and speed up prison construction to “take control of prisons and reduce reoffending”.
Sir Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that a Labour government would “probably” continue to release prisoners early because of prison overcrowding.
Tania Bassett, national executive for probation union Napo, said Operation Brinker is currently “on standby.” “It’s basically a one-in, one-out approach to prison if we’re at zero capacity,” Bassett said. “It’s monitored 24/7 and that’s going to be a big challenge for the next administration.”
As of last Friday, there were 87,360 people in prisons in England and Wales, around 1,400 below the “operational capacity” across all types of prisons combined, including women’s prisons and open prisons which can only accommodate low-risk prisoners nearing the end of their sentences.
Prisons ‘waiting to explode’
Labour’s shadow justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, accused the Conservatives of “turning prisons into a powder keg waiting to explode”.
“Currently, authorities are operating under a veil of secrecy and are not telling the public the truth about the steps they are taking, including who will be released early,” she added.
“We are under no illusions. The situation we inherit will be dire. But we will take the steps necessary to address the crisis and improve our justice system in the long term.”
Mark Day, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, said that without action “we risk the system literally grinding to a halt and we could end up with a court sentencing someone to prison and then no place to put them”.
“Not only is this a risk to the protection and safety of our citizens, but it would also be a devastating blow in terms of public perception and trust in the system,” he said. “We are days or weeks away from another crisis and we are running out of room to maneuver.”
Operation Brinker builds on earlier contingencies, codenamed Early Dawn and Safeguard, in which prisoners were temporarily held in police custody before being transferred to courts or prisons.
Currently, Operation Safeguard is in place to detain prisoners in police custody for up to one day, but the enhanced measures under Operation Early Dawn have not been implemented since May.
In a letter published on Tuesday, the Police Federation – the organisation which represents rank-and-file police officers – expressed concern that the system was resulting in people being unlawfully detained without being able to be brought to court within the stipulated timeframe.
“Detainees are being unlawfully held in police custody and we are currently receiving advice which identifies and highlights the significant risks to officers in terms of criminal, civil and misconduct proceedings if they breach the law,” the letter to police chiefs said.
Attorney General Alex Chalk also launched a “limited” scheme in early October to release some prisoners for minor offences for up to 18 days to ease prison overcrowding. The scheme has since been extended to 70 days, but the government has so far refused to release information about how many have been released.
“This can happen again and again.”
Andrew Neilson, campaigns director at the Howard Criminal Law Reform League, said: “Despite the early release measures put in place by the previous government, it is highly likely that prison cells will be full by the end of this month.”
“Early release is an immediate measure to provide some breathing space, but the question is what to do in the medium to long term, because more steps need to be taken to stop this from happening again and again.”
I The Conservative government’s emergency measures were due to be put in place earlier but were delayed by Downing Street, and Mr Chalk has previously revealed he spent months seeking the backing of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak before the measures were approved.
“It was politically very untenable, so they didn’t want to do it until other avenues had been explored,” a Justice Department official said last month. “They could have done it all sooner, but they knew it would have been really bad for them. They’ve been dragging their feet for as long as possible.”
As I understand it, civil servants have been submitting formal consultations to ministers since at least March 2023 warning that prison overcrowding requires urgent action and setting out policy options, and official forecasts for 2021 accurately predict that operational capacity will be reached in the second half of 2023.
A Conservative spokesman said: “We have overseen the biggest expansion of our prison infrastructure since Victorian times, securing more than 13,000 new places since 2010 and over 6,000 more since 2019, keeping criminals behind bars.”
Urgent measures to ease the prison crisis
Operation Safeguard The scheme, which sees some prisoners temporarily placed in police custody to ease pressure on prisons, will be rolled out on a rolling basis from 2022. Under the scheme, which was in place from 2006 to 2008, the government could request the use of up to 400 police custody cells across England and Wales.
Operation Early Dawn This is an enhanced contingency plan based on Operation Safeguard, which was first used in March and again in May. It allows HM Prisons and Probation Service to assess each morning which defendants awaiting trial should be transferred from police custody to court, and ensure there are free prison places available if a defendant is detained. If there are no free places available, the prisoner will be held in police custody for a further night, or released on bail if they are not taken to court and their hearing is adjourned.
Operation Blinker If, despite these two contingencies, vacancies approach zero, prison authorities could escalate their plans further and operate a “one in, one out” system across England and Wales: prisoners would be transferred to locations across the country where vacant cells have been identified, to ensure that all spaces are used where possible.
Early ReleaseOfficially known as the Supervised Release to End Detention system, the scheme was launched in October as a response to the prison capacity crisis. Attorney General Alex Chalk initially announced a “limited” scheme to release some prisoners for minor offences early for up to 18 days, but extended it to 60 days in March and 70 days in May as overcrowding worsened. Those convicted of sex offences, terrorism and serious assault offences are excluded, although perpetrators of domestic violence have been released early, watchdog groups have found.
House arrest curfew The scheme allows prisoners to be released early, following a risk assessment, with an electronically monitored curfew and ankle tags. The scheme only applied to people serving sentences of less than four years, until the cap was lifted by the government in June. All sex offenders and serious violent offenders are exempt from the scheme, as are category A prisoners and those subject to the Parole Board.