Prisons can cope with riots surge, says Kenneth Clarke

Kenneth Clarke: Said the criminal justice system responded 'very well to the totally unexpected pressure of the riots'
10 April 2012
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"Sufficient capacity" exists in the prison system despite the unprecedented rise following the riots across England, the Justice Secretary has said.

During Justice questions in the Commons, Kenneth Clarke said the criminal justice system responded "very well to the totally unexpected pressure of the riots".

He said that since summer 2008 the prison population had been increasing "much less quickly than had been the case for a number of years".

But he added the public disorder in early August resulted in a "sharp rise" in the number of prisoners, with the prison population reaching 86,842 last Friday.

Mr Clarke said: "Despite this unprecedented rise, sufficient capacity has been maintained in the prisons estate to accommodate the prison population effectively."

Labour's Stephen Pound (Ealing North) called on Mr Clarke to give credit to the response of prison officers and other workers in the wake of the riots, adding: "An additional 500 operational, usable places have appeared in the last few weeks, where from?"

Mr Clarke duly paid tribute to the "goodwill" of prison officers, probation officers, police, court staff, all of whom, he said, responded "with horror to the events and decided to put the public interest first".

He added: "We always carry a cushion in the prisons estate because we don't know what number of prisoners are going to come.

"I know there's consequences which some of my predecessors have encountered of running out of places in the prisons and for that reason I'm glad to say we were able to cope, there's still sufficient capacity and we trust it's very important that we continue to do so."

Shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan maintained the prisons estate was "struggling to cope" with the "record high" prison population, with prison and probation officers "increasingly stretched".

He said prisoners were spending increasing amounts of time "idling in their cells" rather than engaged in work.

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