The head of the Leicester and Rutland probation board has said an emergency response group has been 'stood up' again to respond to the prison overcrowding issue. 

Last year, just months after coming into power, the Labour government made the decision to release 1,700 prisoners early due to the prison cells across the country being full. 

Now, at a meeting of the Leicestershire and Rutland Safer Communities Strategy Board on Friday (March 28) head of the Probation Delivery Unit Bob Bearne said capacity issues are coming to the fore once again. 

He said: "The various government initiatives did ease the crisis. I think we were thinking that that would give us quite a significant bit of breathing space and I think we were looking to get into a similar situation again at the end of 2025, but what is becoming very apparent is the MOJ [Ministry of Justice] is concerned about prison capacity issues sooner than that and we will be back into crisis mode.  

"And, in fact, the Local Criminal Justice Board for LLR has just stood up the gold group again to manage the situation with regard to prison overcrowding and I know that police cells are already being potentially used.  

"It's obviously a worry for all of us, but for me in the probation service it means that quite a lot of the things we would like to do in terms of developing things will be somewhat overtaken by our need to respond." 

He said: 'we are hearing there will be measures in place'. 

"I think MOJ are worried that were there to be a repeat of some of the public disorder that happened last summer. If that were to happen this summer that would bring forward capacity issues. We felt we had some space until the end of the year, but I think it is going to be sooner than that." 

He said there had been no serious offences committed by the prisoners who had an early release 'because it was so tightly managed'. 

The Leicestershire probation service has just had an inspection and a report will be published in the coming months. In 2023 the service was rated as inadequate and inspectors said there was low morale within the workforce and excessive workloads. 

Mr Bearne said the staffing situation within his service was improving. 

He said: "I'm pleased to say that we are in a much better position staffing wise than we were this time last year. However, what that gives us is quite a young and inexperienced staff group who will require quite a bit of training and development to get us to where we want to be. But good news staffing wise. 

The prisons issue is high on the national agenda currently. Former justice secretary David Gauke MP is undertaking a review of sentencing guidelines, which has the remit of increasing punishment for offenders outside of prison. 

And the parliamentary public accounts committee, which examines the value for money of Government projects, released a report this month urging the government to take rapid action. 

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chairperson of the committee, said: "This committee recognises and respects the extraordinary work carried out by prison staff. This work is often done in the most difficult circumstances, even when the system is working at optimal efficiency. But our inquiry has established that severely overcrowded prisons are in danger of becoming pressure cookers. Vital rehabilitative work providing purposeful activity including retraining would help to cut high rates of reoffending – but this work is sidelined as staff are forced to focus on maintaining control of increasingly unsafe environments. Many prisoners themselves are living in simply inhumane conditions, with their health needs often overlooked."