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“Mini riots” are occurring in prisons across England and Wales as overcrowding increases the risk of larger-scale disruption. I can be revealed.
Officials say the current capacity crisis, which has prompted the use of emergency early release schemes and police custody to hold prisoners, could put prisoners, staff and the public at risk.
There are fears that if a full-scale riot were to break out and parts of the prison were to become unusable, there would not be enough space elsewhere to hold and isolate the displaced prisoners.
The warning is I The government said on Tuesday that prisons will be full in the coming days and revealed that a contingency plan, code-named Operation Brinker, could be used for the first time in history to implement a “one in, one out” system if capacity approaches zero.
Mark Fairhurst, national president of the Prison Officers Association, said there had been an increase in incidents of “co-ordinated indiscipline” which included a range of behaviour from groups of prisoners refusing to follow directions from prison officers to violent brawls.
“It could be a small scale riot, but it’s happening at least once a week,” he said. I“It’s happening everywhere, and it’s a lot more than normal.”
Official figures for the past year are yet to be released, but some violent incidents have been recorded, including an attack at Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire in March which led to a prison officer being put into an induced coma.
Mr Fairhurst said tensions were due to overcrowding, with prisoners being locked up for up to 23 hours a day with no rehabilitative activities and kept two together in Victorian cells designed for one person.
“Overcrowding puts pressure on everyone,” he warned. “Prisoners spend more time in solitary confinement, they become stressed, and there aren’t enough staff to meet their needs.”
All the ingredients for a major riot are here.
“All the things that could lead to major unrest are happening, and if we lose our wings or our prisons… [to a riot]Where are you going to house the prisoners?”
As of last Friday, there were 87,360 people held in prisons in England and Wales, about 1,400 short of the upper limit of “operational capacity” for prisons overall.
The Prison Governors Association (PGA) estimates that adult male prisons have capacity for just 700 inmates, as this figure includes women’s prisons and open prisons that can only accommodate low-risk prisoners.
“The warning signs of major unrest in prisons are already there,” PGA chairman Tom Wheatley warned, adding: “The fact that no such disturbance has occurred so far speaks to how hard prison officials are working to mitigate some of the events that might otherwise occur.”
Wheatley warned that overcrowding meant fewer prisoners had access to rehabilitation programs, including drug abuse education and courses, making them more likely to reoffend after release.
“When prisons are filled to capacity as they are now, they are no longer effective places for rehabilitation,” he said. “The longer inmates remain in those conditions, the less chance they have of becoming law-abiding and leading useful lives.”
Attorney General Alex Chalk in October launched a program to release some low-level inmates up to 18 days early to address prison overcrowding, and extended it to 60 days in March and 70 days in May as the crisis worsened.
An emergency response plan, Operation Safeguard, has also been implemented to ease the pressure by keeping prisoners in police custody for a maximum of one day, but prison populations continue to rise.
Prison officials threaten lawsuit over safety concerns
Ms Fairhurst said prison officials wanted the new administration to “take brave, bold decisions and act swiftly” to stop overcrowding getting worse.
“Once we’re full, we’re full and we will sue the government if they breach our operational capacity,” he added. “We will take decisive action and protect the health and safety of our members at all costs.”
The Prison Reform Trust said the current situation was the worst capacity crisis since the end of the previous Labour government in 2007, which also triggered the emergency early release measures.
Deputy Director Mark Day said there were “safety risks” both inside and outside prisons and that prisoners were being transferred between prisons “simply to free up space”, undermining rehabilitation and losing access to educational courses and rehabilitation programmes.
“It’s about safety risks, hindrances to reintegration and squalid and inhumane conditions,” he said.
“We are hearing that many people who have been released under the early release scheme are then returned to custody.”
According to data collected by the PGA from prisons, between 30 and 50 percent of inmates released early end up returning to prison for violating the terms of their release.
“They’re releasing people at the last minute without a plan in place, which significantly reduces the chances of them complying with their licence conditions,” Mr Wheatley said.
Probation officers have warned that short release notices, understaffing and a lack of resources mean overstretched staff are struggling to put in place proper support programmes and monitoring.
Prison warden urges earlier release of inmates
The Prison Governors Association is calling on the next government to raise the automatic release threshold for most prisoners to 40 per cent of their sentences, rather than the current half or two-thirds.
PGA chairman Tom Wheatley said the measures should be implemented “without delay from day one”, adding: “This is going to be difficult to manage and it’s not going to be popular. Nobody wants to see someone in prison for a shorter sentence than the judge has envisaged, but we have no choice in the matter.”
He also urged politicians to develop a long-term prison strategy and launch a national debate about the “purpose of prisons”.
The charity Howard League for Prison Reform supported the 40% release rate measure but warned it was only a “breathing opportunity”.
“That raises the question of what else can be done in the medium to long term, because more needs to be done to stop this happening again and again,” said Andrew Neilson, the charity’s campaigns director.
“This is a crisis that has been brewing for years, if not decades. Early release is not ideal, but with prisons facing a cell shortage this month, it’s clearly something they absolutely have to do.”
Mr Day, from the Prison Reform Trust, said the new administration had “tough choices” ahead of it, but added: “It is safer to release someone early, if done properly, than not to accept someone with a serious offence because there is no space.”
The Conservative government introduced legislation that would have created a legal presumption against short-term prison sentences of less than a year, but it was rejected after Rishi Sunak called a general election.
Labour has pledged to launch a review of sentencing policy and the probation service, as well as speed up prison building to “take control of prisons and reduce reoffending”.
The party has not announced its immediate plan of action if it wins power in Thursday’s general election, but has not ruled out emergency measures.
During the election campaign this week, Sir Keir Starmer suggested that if Labour was elected it would reduce the time most criminals spend in prison and potentially allow some “high risk” offenders early release in order to ease prison overcrowding.
Charities that support ex-prisoners say a significant number of prisoners end up homeless on release due to a lack of accommodation, and are then returned to prison because they are unable to meet requirements to live at a particular address.
Transform Justice chief executive Penelope Gibbs said the new government must address three factors causing overcrowding: inflated sentences, prison recalls and a backlog of cases leaving record numbers of prisoners awaiting trial.
“If we don’t help, then we have the issue of recall, where people are put back in prison,” she added. “They may not have committed another crime, but they’ve violated the conditions of their sentence, like being over curfew or not showing up at an appointment.”
Mr Gibbs blamed successive governments for “massive sentence inflation”, which has seen sentences for several crimes increased without a corresponding expansion of prison capacity.
“This war of words has accomplished nothing,” she added. “The new law has exponentially increased our prison population and done nothing to make us safer.”
Pav Dhaliwal, chief executive of the charity Revolving Doors, said: “Our criminal justice system is currently overwhelmed with high reoffending rates, ineffective short custodial sentences and inadequate support for people with complex needs, perpetuating cycles of crime and putting enormous pressure on public resources.”
“Root causes such as poverty, housing instability, mental health issues and substance abuse remain largely unaddressed, further exacerbating the crisis. Immediate and decisive action is needed to break this cycle.”
A prisons spokesman said robust plans were in place to deal with unrest, including a tornado response team.
“We have a zero-tolerance attitude towards violence and prisoners who break the rules will be punished,” they added.
The Conservative and Labour parties have been contacted for comment.