Police cells could temporarily hold inmates to deal with surge of prisoners

Available for over a year

The National Chair of the Prison Officers Association, Mark Fairhurst, responds to the Government announcement that police cells could be used to temporarily hold inmates in a contingency plan called Operation Safeguard. Speaking to BBC Political Reporter Sarah Sanderson, Mark Fairhurst says the prison service is in crisis adding "This Operation Safeguard will put extra pressure on an already under resourced and understaffed police service." Listen to his interview in full here. In a statement, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Justice says: "“Keeping the public safe and cutting crime by taking dangerous criminals off the streets remains our number one priority. 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.”