Britain takes emergency action to ease prison crowding after riots

LONDON - The British government has approved emergency measures to prevent prison overcrowding in northern England, as the country’s stretched penal system begins accepting hundreds of people prosecuted over recent far-right riots. 

The government announced the move on Aug 19, citing the need to manage the flow of inmates after Prime Minister Keir Starmer hastened convictions of people involved in anti-immigrant unrest that erupted in July.

The “decisive action to tackle violent thuggery on our streets” has exacerbated longstanding capacity issues in the prisons, the government acknowledged in its announcement. 

The government reactivated a programme dubbed Operation Early Dawn – last used by former prime minster Rishi Sunak’s Conservative administration in May – that requires police to hold suspects until the required cells are available.

The number of people arrested as a result of the unrest

surpassed 1,000 on Aug 16

, with some 575 suspects formally charged at that point.

The emergency move underscores Mr Starmer’s limited space to take decisive policy action after inheriting a government with stressed public services and a historically high tax burden.

Prison overcrowding was cited as one of the new Labour Party administration’s most urgent concerns after

its landslide election victory in July

.  

“We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks,” Prisons Minister James Timpson said in a statement. “As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating.”

The disorder was sparked by the

fatal stabbings of three young girls

attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29.

Fuelled by far-right activists, misinformation about the attacker’s origins spread on the internet, leading to days of anti-immigration rioting around the country, with targets including mosques, immigration facilities and the police. BLOOMBERG