Heidi Alexander, the justice minister, told News that 567 extra spaces will be available starting next week.
They will be housed in a new housing block at Stocken Prison in Rutland, as well as the recently converted HMP Cookham Wood, a former young offenders institution in Borstal, Kent, which was closed in March after being deemed “inhumane” by the prisons watchdog.
The government had already planned to offer more room at institutions to address the country’s jail overcrowding crisis, but it is now pushing them forward to deal with rioters arrested over the last week and anticipated to be kept on remand in prison.
Hundreds of people have been arrested since last Tuesday, when riots erupted after incorrect information circulated online claiming the Southport stabbing suspect, who was born in Wales, was a Syrian asylum seeker who arrived by tiny boat last year.
Dozens of people have appeared in court accused of a variety of offenses, including violent disturbance, racially aggravated harassment, and using threatening language online to incite racial hatred.
