Emergency measures to ease prison overcrowding activated in UK amid sentencing of far-right rioters

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) – The British government has activated emergency measures to ease prison overcrowding in England, as more far-right rioters are set to be jailed for their role in the recent violent disorder.

The system, known as Operation Early Dawn, has been activated to allow the government to keep defendants waiting for court appearances in police cells across northern England until prison space becomes available, the Ministry of Justice said in a statement on Monday.

The government said its efforts to "tackle violent thuggery on our streets" have "exacerbated longstanding capacity issues in our prisons."

"This means that offenders will be summoned to a magistrates’ court only when it is confirmed that a cell in the prison estate is ready for them, should they be remanded into custody," said the statement.

It added that they will be held in a police station until they are summoned to court.

"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," said Prisons and Probation Minister Lord Timpson.

Timpson noted that Operation Early Dawn to manage the pressure felt in "some parts" of the country.

Nev Kemp of the National Police Chiefs' Council 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."

Over 1,000 people have been arrested, and hundreds more have been charged, in connection with the far-right riots that broke out across the UK following a stabbing incident in Southport on July 29.

The UK has seen a surge in charges as authorities respond to the violent riots, which were fueled by false online claims that the suspect in the fatal stabbing of three children in Southport was a Muslim asylum seeker. The attacker, identified as Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old from Cardiff with Rwandan parents, has done little to deter the far-right mobs.