Prisoners could be held in police cells to tackle overcrowding, justice minister says

Prisoners could be held in police cells in a bid to reduce “acute and sudden” overcrowding in jails.Justice minister Damian Hinds told MPs the Government has asked to use 400 police cells to hold inmates after a surge in overcrowding in male prisons over the last few months – the “first time ever” such a rapid increase has occurred.It comes after there was an “unprecedented increase” in the number of offenders coming into prisons in the north of England, according to the Ministry of Justice.Source: PA, Parliament Live TV