Police ‘could spherical up a whole lot extra rioters subsequent month when cells are freed up’

Hundreds more rioters could be rounded up next month when large swathes of prisoners are freed on early release, a union chief has suggested.

Police across the UK are trawling through hours of footage to identify those behind mass violence across the UK. But the scale of the operation, which has so far seen over 1,100 arrests, has put huge pressure on crisis-hit jails. Ministers were forced to trigger an emergency operation in Northern England on Monday, allowing rioters to be held in police cells until their court case because prisons are near to capacity.

However from September 10, hundreds of inmates will start being released after the Government said they can be freed after serving 40% of their sentence, rather than 50%. This could be an opportunity to sweep up remaining thugs behind the rioting, Mark Fairhurst, chairman of the Prison Officers Association (PCO) said. He told The Mirror : “If you wanted to box clever you would identify people who were rioting, but you wouldn’t actually go out and arrest them until September 11.

“Come the 11th of September you’d get them all in, charge them, get them up in the court knowing there’s at least 2,500 spare spaces in prison to bang them up. So if you wanted to box clever you just delay the arrests to the 11th of September.”

Mr Fairhurst said the Government was right to fast-track the prosecution of rioters, saying this “definitely” prevented the violence getting worse as it deterred more riots. The National Police Chiefs’ Council said that by Sunday there had been 1,165 arrests and 703 charges following the widespread disorder.

The high number of cases piled further pressure on the crisis-hit prison service. On Friday there were just 340 spaces for men in closed jails in the whole of England and Wales. Cabinet member Jo Stevens said on Tuesday morning: “The previous government knew about this problem. They did nothing about it. They called an election and ran away from it.”

Days after Labour was elected, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced inmates could be released after serving 40% of their sentence to ease pressure. This was down from 50% – but excludes those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse or some violent offences. The first wave of releases will happen next month.

On Monday the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) triggered Operation Early Dawn – a Government plan to protect prisons from reaching capacity. This allows police cells to be used.

It is in place in the North East and Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, and Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire regions.