LONDON: The UK government activated emergency measures on Monday 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. That has exacerbated a capacity crisis within the prisons system in England and Wales, with the new Labour government warning last month it was on the brink of “collapse” due to overcrowding.

England and Wales has 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.

Operation Early Dawn will see officials across northern England make an operational assessment each morning and throughout the day over which defendants can attend court, dependent on prisons capacity. “We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks,” prisons minister James Timpson said in a statement.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2024