Labour triggers emergency prison plan as riot clampdown leaves justice system on the brink
Fast-tracked charges and sentences for rioters continue to pile up under Starmer
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Labour has activated emergency plans to combat prison overcrowding as fast-tracked charges and sentences for rioters continue to pile up.
The plan, named Operation Early Dawn, will see defendants waiting for court appearances across the north of England shipped out to police cells - where they will not be summoned to magistrates' courts until prison spaces open up again.
The crackdown, fewer than two months into Sir Keir Starmer's Government, will be imposed across Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Manchester, Merseyside, the north east and Yorkshire.
Early Dawn had been triggered for a week in May this year under the Conservatives - and back then, a Labour spokesman had stated the party would scrap the early release system altogether.
Lord Timpson called the move "difficult but necessary"
PA/UK Government
Crown Prosecution Service figures put the total number of riots-related charges at almost 500 people - but the Ministry of Justice has blamed a "crisis" inherited from the Tories.
Lord Timpson, the PM's hand-picked prisons and probation minister, called the move "difficult but necessary" while police leaders have assured the public that "policing will continue to arrest anyone that they need to".
He said: "We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks.
"As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating.
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Almost 500 charges have been made following the riots so far
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"However, thanks to the hard work of our dedicated staff and partners, we have brought forward additional prison places and now introduced Operation Early Dawn to manage the pressure felt in some parts of the country."
He added that convicted offenders who pose a risk to the public "will not be bailed" under the plans, which includes sex offenders, some violent offenders, and those convicted of terrorism or domestic abuse-related crimes.
But GB News understands the operation will result in an estimated 5,500 offenders being released across September and October.
Some of those released early could include offenders convicted of crimes relating to the riots, the Government has confirmed.
Some convicted of riot offences could be released early under the plan
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Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp, the National Police Chiefs' Council's (NPCC's) custody lead, said: "We are working closely with criminal justice system partners to manage demand in the system and ensure that the public are safe.
"Policing will continue to arrest anyone that they need to in order to keep the public safe, including policing protests and events and ensuring that people are arrested as expected."
Back in May under the Tories, David McNeill, the public affairs director of the Law Society, told the BBC that the impact on and delays to court cases led to him hearing "quite disturbing accounts" of "administrative carnage".
McNeill had said: "We're having victims, witnesses, lawyers and defendants turning up at magistrates' courts today only to find that the case has been cancelled and delayed to some point in the future."