Overcrowded jails 'close to safe limit'

The prison population is on the verge of maximum capacity despite a recent expansion of jail places.

Two prisons are to be built but are unlikely to be ready before the prison population passes its absolute limit of 75,556 places, which would force courts to send convicts into police custody.

There are 72,144 inmates, 6,730 above the "certified normal accommodation" of 65,414 and only 3,412 fewer than its designated safe limit.

The Home Office statistics also show that England and Wales is the jail capital of western Europe. They reveal that 139 people are jailed for every 100,000 citizens. Portugal has the next highest figure of 131. Germany jails 96 and France 85.