Two men have been transferred to the female wing

Two men have been re-located to cells on the two-storey wing, which currently houses two female prisoners.

Acting prison governor Tony Hawkes said the men were moved to the wing after a series of risk assessment tests.

He added: "Prison management recognises that this is not an ideal solution but the alternative is to release more prisoners early on licence."

Although the male population currently stands at 77, pressure has been put on the prison's 81 male places because of a higher number of different category inmates who need different facilities.

The men have been allocated cells on a different floor to the female prisoners - with the floors having separate access, landings and communal areas.

'Temporary solution'

Two prisoners have already been released from the Douglas jail on temporary licence this week - four days and nine days before their respective scheduled releases.

Home Affairs Minister Martyn Quayle MHK said: "This is a temporary solution to overcrowding at the prison which has been operating at or close to capacity for some considerable time.

"Alternative solutions would be to release more prisoners before completion of their sentence or to consider an option to allocate three prisoners to twin cells by installing bunk beds.

"That would be against the recommendations of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons and would only be done as an emergency measure.

'We look forward to moving the prison population to Jurby early next year which will alleviate the overcrowding problems we have at present."

Future options

Mr Hawkes added: "Returning male prisoners to the male accommodation will be our priority as soon as the prison population reduces.

"It is a short-term measure and we are actively considering other options for the future including electronic tagging of prisoners who could be released early.

"Problems with overcrowding are periodically faced at Victoria Road jail and have been well publicised in the past.

"The prison management looks at every option open to us to best accommodate prisoners for the duration of their custodial sentence."