A new dawn has broken, has it not? Operation Early Dawn, that is. This is the emergency measure the government has activated which means suspected criminals could be set free on bail instead of heading to jail, due to a lack of prison places.
As our courts correspondent Tristan Kirk reports, the measure is designed to avoid defendants being remanded in custody, only for them to be stuck on a prison van with no jail cell to be transferred to. Operation Early Dawn also follows a separate decision by ministers to cut short some prison sentences by up to 70 days, again with the aim of easing overcrowding.
