Judges told DON'T send rapists to jail next week - prisons are FULL

Lord Edis, who serves as the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, announced the delay will start on Monday.

Some prisoners will also be released early under proposals from justice ministers.

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Ministry of Justice sources said that the decision had been taken by judges and were independent of Government because prisons were at capacity.

However, they stressed that only alleged criminals who were not seen as a risk to the public will be kept on bail.

The source told GB News: "Of course, convicted rapists will go to prison. This is regarding those already on bail who have been deemed a low risk to public safety by the courts.

"Those who have been deemed a risk to public safety are remanded in prison."

The source added: "Sentence hearings are regularly rescheduled to allow time for pre-sentence reports to be compiled and if offenders skip bail that is an offence in itself.

"Equally if they go on to commit further offences while on bail, their sentences can be made harsher."

Edis held a remote meeting with senior judges to confirm cells in magistrates' courts will instead be used to hold suspects accused of the most serious crimes who are remanded in custody.

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Judges have been “ordered/strongly encouraged” not to send defendants who appear before them on bail to jail in an attempt to alleviate existing strains facing UK prisons.

A senior Crown Court judge told The Times: “We have been told that this is a ‘short-term measure’, but nobody knows what that means.”

However, the judge expressed concerns about defendants charged with rape, rape of child under 13 and other sexual offences.

They asked: “What am I going to do if a jury finds someone guilty [of rape].

“Do I release that person who is now convicted back into the community, where the victim might see them? What will the victim think?”

Data compiled by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) revealed the prison population in England and Wales was 88,016 as of last Friday.

The estate's capacity is only a few hundred more at 88,670 and a report earlier this year warned the prison population looks set to rise to 94,400 by spring 2025.

More than 106,000 criminals could be behind bars by 2027.

Prisons in the North West of England have already run out of space, with inmates being transferred to Birmingham in a bid to ease the situation.

The coronavirus pandemic has put further strains on the prison service, with a record number of backlog cases going through the courts.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk KC confirmed at the Conservative Party conference that the Government were scrambling to find space to accommodate its the prison population.

Chalk, who succeeded Dominic Raab at the Ministry of Justice earlier this year, announced discussions were taking place with European countries to rent spare prison cells.

The potential move would change the law to allow prisoners to serve their terms overseas.

Norway and Belgium have previously rented cells abroad.

Boris Johnson pledged to build 20,000 new prison places by the mid-2020s when the Tory Party romped to victory in the 2019 General Election.

However, official projections indicate that less than half will be delivered by March 2025.

Only 5,500 places have been delivered so far and plans for three new prisons in Lancashire, Leicestershire and Buckinghamshire have all been delayed due to problems gaining planning permission.

Labour has committed itself to retaining the Government's 2019 pledge but has not yet confirmed how it intends to overcome planning issues.

Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “It is an absolutely damning indictment of the state of our prisons that this Tory government is unable to either get criminals locked up or keep them there.

“The prison estate is a mess. Prisons are overcrowded and have become breeding grounds for more crime.

“The Government has been warned time and again about the challenges with prison population and conditions.

“It is an abject failure on their part that after 13 years in Government, they have done nothing to address this problem — in fact they have made it worse by driving it into the ground.

She added: “The Tories are unable to keep criminals behind bars and unable to lead this country.”

The MOJ stressed the Government's priority is to protect the public but the pandemic and barristers' strike is causing significant problems.

The department said: “Our first priority is to keep the public safe from dangerous criminals.

“That is why we have ended automatic halfway release for serious sexual and violent criminals and increased the average time spent in prison by three years — cutting violent crime by nearly 50 per cent since 2010.“

“However, the criminal justice system has seen unprecedented growth in the prison population, following the pandemic and barristers’ strike, particularly among those awaiting trial, with 6,000 more prisoners on remand than pre-pandemic.

“The Prison Service has already put in place measures such as rapid deployment cells and doubling up cells to help manage these pressures, and the Government is carrying out the biggest prison building campaign since the Victorian era to build 20,000 new places, making sure we always have the places we need.”

A spokesman for the Judicial Office - which speaks for judges - said she would not comment on internal meetings.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHRISTOPHER HOPE