Prisoners could be held in police cells to tackle overcrowding, justice minister says

Prisoners could be held in police cells in a bid to reduce “acute and sudden” overcrowding in jails, Justice minister Damian Hinds has said.

Speaking in parliament, he told MPs the government has asked to use 400 police cells to hold inmates after a surge in overcrowding in male prisons over the last few months - the “first time ever” such a rapid increase has occurred.

It comes after there was an “unprecedented increase” in the number of offenders coming into prisons in the north of England, according to the Ministry of Justice.

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