UK responds to prison overcrowding with new emergency measures

Operation Early Dawn allows defendants to be held in police cells as prison capacity reaches breaking point

• Eastern Eye
• 19 August, 2024

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By: Eastern Eye

THE UK government has invoked emergency protocols to manage the escalating overcrowding in prisons across northern England, triggered by the surge in convictions following recent riots. Under the newly activated “Operation Early Dawn,” defendants will be detained in police cells and delayed from court appearances until sufficient prison space becomes available.

This move follows the unprecedented wave of convictions linked to the widespread unrest earlier this month, which has pushed the already strained prison system in England and Wales to its limits. The Labour government had previously cautioned that the system was on the brink of “collapse” due to overcrowding, with England and Wales now holding the highest prison population per capita in Western Europe.

The government has already announced plans to release thousands of prisoners early from September to deal with the crisis.

Operation Early Dawn will see officials across northern England make an operational assessment each morning and throughout the day over which defendants can attend court, dependent on prisons capacity.

“We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks,” prisons minister James Timpson said in a statement.

“As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating.”

The justice ministry said the move will help “manage the prison capacity pressure felt in the short-term in a small number of regions”.

Police have indicated that this will not impact officers’ ability to make arrests, the ministry added, insisting “anyone who poses a risk to the public will not be bailed”.

However, representatives for workers in prisons and the courts system warned that the policy would invariably impact policing and other areas of criminal justice.

“It’s justice delayed at the moment, because we’re not clogging up police cells, so they might have to delay some of their operations,” Prison Officers’ Association chair Mark Fairhurst told the BBC.

Meanwhile Tom Franklin, of the Magistrates’ Association, said “there will be a delay in some people who have been charged coming to court because the Prison Service can’t guarantee… there would be a place for them”.

The riots that recently swept England and Northern Ireland followed the stabbing to death of three girls at a dance class in Southport, northwest England.

Officials have blamed far-right agitators for fuelling the disturbances, which saw police attacked and mosques and hotels used to house asylum seekers also targeted. (AFP)