Reid seeks EU help to avert jail crisis

Home Secretary John Reid is in talks with his European counterparts in a bid to releave the pressure on Britain's jails, which is close to bursting point.

Latest figures show the number of prisoners in England and Wales has reached 79,642, with capacity put by the Prison Service as 79,968.

The jail population increased by 357 last week and if that trend continues, our jails could be full within days.

Mr Reid, meeting with EU justice and interior ministers in Luxembourg, wants more foreign prisoners to serve part or all of their sentences in their home countries.

There are 10,000 foreign prisoners currently being held in this country.

According to the Home Office, officials are set to present a series of options to Mr Reid regarding emergency measures. That is likely to include deporting or transferring foreign prisoners to immigration centres.

Officials are also reported to be considering releasing some inmates early to free up prison cells or using cells at police stations - a strategy known as Operation Safeguard - to house prisoners.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, called on Mr Reid to "act decisively".

"Everyone knows that an overcrowded jail can do little or nothing to prevent the next victim," she said.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "The way you get prison numbers down is by cutting the offending. Half of all our crime today is caused by convicts who reoffend.

"One of the reasons for that is our prisons have been allowed to get so crowded that we don't do any rehabilitation, we can't get them off drugs, we can't retrain and so reoffending rates go up."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg blamed "incompetence right at the top" for the crisis.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "This is a situation which the Home Office, working alongside the Prison Service, keep under constant review, and it will be a matter for operational decisions as to how they manage it."

A Prison Service spokeswoman said that the prison population was something which was "closely monitored".

She pointed to announcements in July to create thousands of new prison places by building new prisons as well as expanding existing ones.