When jails are full, “Operation Safeguard” permits criminals to be kept in police cells.
According to the administration, this is a planned component of the system and not an unusual action. It was employed both last year and in the previous several months of activation.
It comes after an additional extension of the End of Custody Supervised License Scheme, an emergency provision that permits early prisoner release prior to the completion of their term in order to facilitate capacity.
The justice secretary declared in October that inmates will be released from prison up to eighteen days before to the conclusion of their sentence. That has since been changed to allow some offenders to be released from prison earlier.
Operation Safeguard’s activation is another indication that prisons are under strain.
