Emergency payout to solve problem of prison overcrowding
Wednesday, 20 Feb 2008 13:11
£55 million will aim to ease the overcrowding crisis
Justice secretary Jack Straw has announced an emergency payment of £55 million to help solve the problem of overcrowding in Britain's prisons.
Of the funding, £35 million will be used to pay for keeping prisoners in temporary police cells.
The announcement comes after official prison numbers were released this week and now stand at a record high of 81,918.
Over 400 of the prisoners are currently being held in police cells.
Earlier the British Medical Association (BMA) criticised the government for placing prisoners in temporary cells.
It was claimed that the conditions meant doctors were struggling to treat prisoners with drug and mental health problems.
For this story in depth and more on Prison numbers visit inthenews.co.uk , also part of the Adfero news network.