Prisons crisis could see inmates placed in police cells

2 December 2022

A national shortage of prison places could see inmates housed in police cells in the short-term, heaping further pressure on the shoulders of officers.

Hertfordshire Police Federation chair Luke Mitchell warned that the workaround solution being implemented by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) would soak up precious resources from policing and put officers and prisoners at risk.

Luke explained: “My colleagues are still expected to tackle crime and lock up offenders, but how can they do that if our custody suites are full. What happens if prisoners need to be moved from one location to another? Do we then become the taxi service? All of this becomes another distraction and takes police officers away from communities, where they are needed.”

“I would urge the Home Secretary and other senior leaders to urgently decide what they want the police to do, last month we were told we needed to attend every burglary, the last few weeks we’ve been told to ensure we clear the roads of protesters, simply put, we can’t do it all.

“Policing needs a complete reset and a clear vision on what leaders and, more importantly, the public want us to concentrate on, moving from one crisis to the next, sending mixed messages to the public only serves to undermine trust and confidence in police.”

Luke described the situation as a “timely reminder of the underfunding in the system” and another demonstration of police officers being taken for granted.

He added: “We are expected to fill the gap for other public and emergency services. We are expected to be social workers, mental health specialists, ambulance drivers and now prison officers.”

Operation Safeguard is the protocol that sees the Government write to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to request the temporary use of police cells, and this is the first time it has been enacted since 2007.

Prisons minister Damian Hinds has blamed the crisis on strike action by the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) which has led to more people on remand. The CBA refutes this and pointed-out that the prison population was at ‘a decade high’ of over 13,000 even before the strike action.

Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp, the NPCC lead for custody, has sought to calm the row by assuring that there will still be capacity in custody suites for police to arrest criminals and hold them, using neighbouring facilities as an overspill if necessary.

An MoJ spokesperson admitted: "We are experiencing an unprecedented increase in the number of offenders coming into prisons in the north of England, partly as a result of the impact of the pandemic and the barrister strike action over the summer months.

"The public would rightly expect us to take the action necessary to create the extra spaces we need, and so we are working with the police to use a small number of cells in the short term so we can continue to put offenders behind bars.”