Britain takes emergency action to ease prison overcrowding after riots – JURIST

The British Ministry of Justice on Monday reactivated a temporary measure called “Operation Early Dawn” to tackle growing prison overcrowding, which has been exacerbated by recent right-wing extremist unrest across the country.

The UK Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has launched Operation Early Dawn to ease pressure on prisons in regions such as North East and Yorkshire, Manchester, Cumbria etc. It involves keeping offenders at a police station until they are summoned to court. Once it is confirmed that a cell is available in the prison, offenders will be summoned to a magistrates' court. The operation, which will come into effect in September, will not affect the police's ability to arrest anyone committing an offence or crime. Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp, National Police Chiefs' Council head for detention, assured that the government is committed to keeping the public safe.

The government also added that additional measures have been introduced to improve prison capacity by creating hundreds of prison places and that the newly formed government is working to solve the problem of prison capacity in the UK. It stressed that despite the difficulty of the decision, changes have been made to certain prison sentences.

The UK has been struggling with prison overcrowding for several years, with prisons operating at over 99 percent capacity since the start of 2023. In July, the Ministry of Justice announced that the current prison population is 87,505, while the maximum capacity is 88,956. UK Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood announced in July the Labour government's plan to release prisoners and place them under community supervision to tackle overcrowding in the country's prisons.

The resumption of the operation was necessary because riots broke out in several cities in early August and hundreds of rioters were arrested. 159 of them were charged with disturbing public order. Justice Minister Heidi Alexander announced that the government was accelerating the process of creating 500 more prison places to accommodate those involved in the violent protests.

Operation Early Dawn was introduced on 15 May as an emergency measure to address the problem of the rising prison population. However, lawyers criticised the measure, stressing that it could further increase the backlog in the criminal courts. The British Bar Council called for an inquiry into the backlog in June and urged a Royal Commission review of the system.