UK's prisons past their cell-by date, new figures show

OVERCROWDING A SERIOUS ISSUE IN SOME JAILS AS CONVICTS RELEASED EARLY

- PAUL BRITTON

HUNDREDS of convicts are being released from prisons early as the government grapples with a serious overcrowding problem.

Now the M.E.N can reveal – by analysing official data – just how crowded prisons in Greater Manchester were, although they’re far from the worst.

It comes as a number of prisoners were released from jails in Greater Manchester, as reported in yesterday’s M.E.N front page story, with those freed from HMP Manchester saying there was confusion over where they were supposed to live.

Ministry of Justice figures show that in July there was a prison population of 87,479 offenders in jail across England and Wales, which is just 1,383 below the total capacity – the number of places needed to accommo- date different classes of prisoner by age, sex, security category, and conviction status, analysis by our Data Unit reveals.

The figures take into account prison population numbers before prisoners were released early.