UK jails face overcrowding crisis

LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) Prisoners could be moved to police cells or released early because jails in England and Wales are nearly full, the government said today.

Prison chiefs face an overcrowding crisis after the number of inmates reached 79,754 yesterday, leaving fewer than 250 spaces for new prisoners.

High reconviction rates, longer sentences and more short jail terms have pushed the prison population to record levels, prison reform charities and senior judges say.

The Home Office said it was looking at a range of measures to ease overcrowding.

''We've seen it coming,'' a spokeswoman said. ''We do have a contingency plan for immediate difficulties placed on the prison population.'' The government announced an extra 8,000 prison places in July to help tackle the crisis.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips said earlier this year that prisoner numbers were rising because more short sentences are being given for relatively minor offences.

The problem is compounded by judges no longer having discretion over sentences, top judge Lord Woolf said earlier this year.

The Prison Reform Trust charity said more people are being jailed for short sentences and many prisoners are being given longer terms.

''People are coming in through a revolving door,'' a spokeswoman said. ''Reconviction rates are very high.'' Home Secretary John Reid is to meet senior prison officials to discuss ways of easing pressure on the system, the BBC reported.

He will meet Prison Service Director General Phil Wheatley and Helen Edwards, chief executive of the National Offender Management Service, the report said.

The Home Office would not comment on the BBC report. It said it has an agreement with police chiefs to use cells in police stations to house prisoners in an emergency. No decision has been taken on whether to use them, the Home Office spokeswoman said.

Another option for freeing up space would be to transfer foreign inmates to their home country to serve their sentence, she added.

A disused army barracks near Dover in Kent is due to be reopened as an open prison to help ease overcrowding.

The government said in August that is was considering extending the ''transitional home leave'' scheme which allows certain inmates to be freed early.

In June, the Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers warned that jails were reaching bursting point and might have to turn away newly convicted criminals.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis on Monday blamed the overcrowding on government mismanagement.

REUTERS PB VC1532