WASHINGTON: The United Kingdom’s government on Monday activated emergency measures to ease overcrowding in prisons in northern England, as growing numbers of people are convicted for involvement in the riots seen earlier this month.
The decision to invoke “Operation Early Dawn”, which allows defendants to be held in police cells and not summoned to court until space in prison becomes available, follows hundreds of convictions for participating in the disorder.
This has led to a capacity crisis, with the new Labour government warning of an impending “collapse” of the prison system, AFP reported.
England and Wales have the highest per capita prison population in Western Europe.
The government has already announced plans to release thousands of prisoners early from September to deal with the crisis. –Agencies
