Britain to lock up criminals in police cells amid justice system crisis

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The British government has announced it will begin detaining criminals in police cells after violent riots across the country in recent weeks left prisons overcrowded.

'Operation Early Dawn', an existing scheme that allows courts to detain criminals in police stations until prison cells become available, was activated on Monday morning.

We have inherited a justice system in crisis and we have been left in shock,” said Sir James Timpson, the Prisons and Probation Minister. “As a result, we have been forced to make difficult but necessary decisions to keep it running.”

Hundreds of suspected rioters have been charged in connection with widespread unrest in towns and cities across Britain following the stabbing deaths of three children in Southport on July 29, most of them in the north of England.

The government has promised to respond with strong justice, and in most cases courts have sentenced adult defendants to prison without granting bail.

Sentenced to up to six years in prison.

Downing Street said: We expect this to be implemented for a short period of time, perhaps a few days or weeks, and will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and activated or deactivated over this short period as necessary.

According to officials, the 'Early Dawn' scheme was only implemented for seven or eight days by the previous Conservative government in May.

Sir Keir Starmer, speaking in Northern Ireland, said: “I’m not going to pretend that this isn’t a challenge, but it is a fundamental failure.” [of the last government] There had to be sufficient prison facilities for the number of prisoners sentenced.

The Prime Minister stressed that the UK Government is committed to swift justice for those involved in recent far-right violence. We have been able to demonstrate that those who commit acts of disorder can be brought swiftly through the criminal justice system.

The Justice Department said Monday that the incarceration of so many people who commit violent street assaults has exacerbated long-standing capacity problems in the prison system.

Prisons have been run at alarming rates in recent years, with capacity often falling below 1%, the report found.

“There have been extremely stressful months with overcrowding and that is the fault of the previous government,” said Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Managers' Association.

“We've closed 20 public prisons, we're not building enough new prisons, we're not making enough prison space available, and that means people are getting longer sentences,” he told the BBC.

We work in the most hostile workplace environment anywhere in the world. It's just horrible.

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The Financial Times reported that 'Operation Early Dawn' was launched after it revealed that British officials were considering locking up prisoners on old barges off Rikers Island in New York to tackle overcrowding in British prisons.

According to the Prison Reform Trust, England and Wales has the highest incarceration rate in Western Europe, with around 141 prisoners per 100,000 people. This compares with 106 in France and 67 in Germany.

The prison population is expected to increase from approximately 87,400 by the end of July 2024 to 114,800 by March 2028. The prison population in England and Wales is 88,800.

Mark Eich, vice-chairman of the Prison Directors' Association, told the BBC that there were currently around 18,000 people convicted but not sentenced or detained for more than 18 months.

“We need to put 18,000 people on trial, some of whom have served their sentences, and that will take the burden off the system,” he said.

In response to the new Early Dawn operation, Tom Franklin, chief executive of the Magistrates' Association, said the government was engaging in a massive game of whack-a-mole.

He said that when governments today try to solve one problem with short-term measures, another problem arises within the system.

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