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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Rajeev Syal Home affairs editor

Prisons in England and Wales will be at ‘breaking point’ in July, governors told

Barbed wired on the walls of Pentonville prison in London
According to MoJ data released on 14 June, the usable capacity in prisons across England and Wales was 88,815, while the population was 87,347. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Prison governors have been warned that jails will be so overcrowded by the second week of July that they will struggle to accept any more inmates, plunging an incoming government into an immediate crisis.

The heads of jails in England and Wales were informed by HM Prison and Probation Service officials earlier this month that data pointed to an “operational capacity breaking point” only days after the 4 July general election.

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