More cases in court over unrest after emergency measures launched to ease prison overcrowding

In the long term it still seems to be a long way offpublished at 09:04 British Summer Time

09:04 CEST

Henry Zeffman
Chief correspondent for politics

Government sources this morning stressed that Operation Early Dawn is an emergency measure that will only have a short-term effect.

However, there is currently no fixed end date for the program; it is under ongoing review.

It is likely that pressure on prison places will ease in early September, when a new policy announced by the government in July, just days after taking office, comes into effect. It will see some prisoners released after serving only 40 percent of their sentence, compared to the 50 percent currently served. This is the government's medium-term measure to deal with what it calls a “justice system in crisis.”

And what about the long-term? The surprise appointment of Lord Timpson, a businessman and criminal justice reform campaigner, as Prisons Minister in July was seen as a harbinger of a new approach from the new government: to send fewer people to prison and place a greater emphasis on rehabilitation.

But at the moment, Timpson and Sir Keir Starmer are facing an acute crisis, and a long-term solution seems a long way off indeed.