Operation Early Dawn activated to manage prison capacity in wake of riots

The Ministry of Justice said the Government’s “decisive action to tackle violent thuggery on the streets” has seen hundreds of people enter the prison estate in the North.

“This has exacerbated longstanding capacity issues in our prisons, which have been operating at critical levels for the last several years, often with under one per cent capacity,” it added.

To manage these pressures, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has reactivated an existing contingency mechanism, Operation Early Dawn, providing extra oversight of prisoner transfers between the police, courts and custody.

This means that offenders will be summoned to a magistrates’ court only when it is confirmed that a cell in the prison estate is ready for them, should they be remanded into custody. They will be held in a police station until they are summoned to court.

“The activation of Operation Early Dawn helps to manage the prison capacity pressure felt in the short term in a small number of regions. This action has been taken to ensure that we always have enough prison places to lock up those who choose to break the law,” the Ministry of Justice said.

Prisons and Probation Minister Lord Timpson said: “We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks. As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating.

“However, thanks to the hard work of our dedicated staff and partners, we have brought forward additional prison places and now introduced Operation Early Dawn to manage the pressure felt in some parts of the country.”

He stressed that the police have reassured the public that this will not impact their ability to arrest criminals, and anyone who poses a risk to the public will not be bailed.

National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for custody, Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp, said: “We are working closely with criminal justice system partners to manage demand in the system and ensure that the public are safe.

“Policing will continue to arrest anyone that they need to in order to keep the public safe, including policing protests and events and ensuring that people are arrested as expected.”

The Government has already brought forward a number of measures to increase capacity as a result of violent disorder, making hundreds of prison places available including a new houseblock at HMP Stocken, the repurposed HMP Cookham Wood, and accelerated maintenance work in other prisons.

Action has also been taken to address the longstanding capacity issues in prisons, with the Government announcing “difficult but necessary changes” to certain prison sentences.

These changes will come into to force in early September, giving the Probation Service the time it needs to safely release offenders, making such each person has somewhere to live once they leave prison and support into work, said the Ministry of Justice.

Operation Early Dawn involves an operational assessment being made each morning and throughout the day by the Prison Service, courts and police on which defendants can be transferred from police cells and taken to courts to ensure there is a safe and secure location if a defendant is remanded to custody.

When previously operated, Operation Early Dawn has helped to minimise disruption to bail hearings and manage the movement of prisoners across the justice estate.

Operation Early Dawn is expected to be implemented to address capacity concerns in North East and Yorkshire; Cumbria and Lancashire; Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire; and East and West Midlands.

The Government says it will keep this measure “under constant review” and will activate or deactivate as necessary.

Ongoing trials in the Crown Court will not be directly impacted and prisoners being held for Crown Court hearings will be brought to court and taken back to prison as usual.

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) is concerned that the contingency mechanism, Operation Early Dawn, would further aggravate the tremendous pressure on working conditions of police officers.

PFEW custody lead Phil Jones said: “Custody officers have tremendous responsibilities placed upon them in their pivotal role in the judicial process and in dealing with and caring for some of the most challenging people in society.

“Our dedicated members will do their utmost best to support the wider criminal justice during this time of crisis, but this added layer of responsibility should not be underestimated.

“Police stations are not prisons. They are not suitable to be used as such for any length of time and, although police officers working in custody are highly skilled, and trained, prison officers are specifically trained to manage the welfare and needs of prisoners.

“We are also concerned the additional pressure placed on our colleagues, cancelled leave and rest days, will push many closer to breaking point. PFEW will continue to support its members at this challenging time, but it is vital forces do everything in their power to protect the welfare of their workforce.

“PFEW is closely engaging strategically with policing partners to highlight and identify risks to our members associated with scenarios of unlawful detention in custody (commonly known as Section 46).  We have been reassured through the NPCC that all forces have robust policies and procedures in place to significantly reduce instances whereby someone maybe held in custody unlawfully.

“PFEW reinforces that our members should act within the law. Operation Early Dawn has and will create challenges within the service, but these are not solely down to demand vs capacity, this is due to the government’s continued failure to invest in the criminal justice system as a whole.

“Our dedicated members are working tirelessly to support communities, bring offenders to justice and will do their bit to support the criminal justice system. PFEW shall continue to monitor the impact of Operation Early Dawn on our members and where appropriate challenge/hold partners to account in the interest of our members.”

Responding to the reactivation of Operation Early Dawn, Tom Franklin, the chief executive of the Magistrates’ Association, said: “We have seen the reports that the Lord Chancellor is – as the previous government did in May this year – implementing Operation Early Dawn. We understand the measure is, for now, limited to the north of England and is partly in response to the numbers of people being jailed following the recent rioting and violent unrest.

 “Operation Early Dawn means there will be delays for some people who are charged with an offence coming to court, because if they were to be remanded in custody the prison service couldn’t guarantee a place for them. We have been assured this is a temporary measure, and we know that pressures on prison places will ease on September 10 (when thousands of people in prison who have served 40 per cent of their sentence will be eligible for release under the Government’s new ‘SDS 40’ programme).

 “However, we are very concerned about these further delays being imposed on cases reaching magistrates’ courts. Every case that is delayed has real-life consequences for victims, witnesses and defendants – and leads to magistrates and court staff sitting around waiting, rather than administering justice. That is a waste of resources, at a time when there are already large backlogs.

 “This emergency measure – while it is necessary – also demonstrates the parlous state of the criminal justice system and the need for an injection of more resources at every stage of the justice process.

 “The system has been lurching from crisis to crisis for years now, often unseen by the public. The civil disorder over the past weeks has brought into public consciousness how important it is that we have a well-funded and well-run justice system for public wellbeing, and the need for a public conversation about what is needed to fix it.

 “As well as considerable investment in the whole criminal justice system – including the courts, many of which are simply crumbling – we need a holistic long-term approach to the problems in the criminal justice system, where all parts are considered as one system, and a discussion about the purpose of prison and indeed other types of sentences.”

Sophie Francis-Cansfield, head of Policy at Women’s Aid, said: “Today, the Government have re-activated ‘Operation Early Dawn’, which will see the early release of some prisoners to ease overcrowding. While the issue of overcrowding in prisons is a real and serious one, Women’s Aid has repeatedly cautioned that the early release of very dangerous perpetrators could have devastating consequences for the women and children who have experienced abuse, as they are starting to rebuild their lives away from fear and harm.

“The Government have announced that prisoners convicted of sexual offences and some domestic abuse offences, including coercive control, will be exempt from the scheme, but we know that the scale of domestic abuse in this country is much larger than the convictions suggest. Countless women choose not to report their experiences to police or find that when they do the charges are eventually dropped before a conviction is made. Many perpetrators also inevitably slip through the net or are convicted of another crime that doesn’t reflect or signal that abuse has been inflicted, and this scheme will only serve to amplify this.

“The nature of domestic abuse means that it doesn’t just end when a perpetrator is caught and sent to prison. Perpetrators pose a lifelong threat to survivors, meaning that robust supervision is needed when they are released after serving their sentences. Our frontline members tell us that women are terrified at the prospect of these men being released early and posing a very real threat to their lives once again.

“The scheme also risks putting additional financial pressure on already underfunded specialist violence against women and girls (VAWG) services – as survivors, who may have felt safe for years prior to this scheme, are forced to reach out to their local service for support or to seek refuge.

“We must see appropriate safeguarding in place, if this scheme is to be rolled out safely. This includes providing domestic abuse training to those working in probation services, an uplift in financial support to specialist women’s VAWG services – who are already facing additional strain through the riots and terrorism we have witnessed on our streets recently – will face additional strain, and partnerships with specialist organisations to ensure women and children aren’t put in danger.

“The heinous attacks we have seen taking place over the last few weeks have made it clear that violence against women and girls is an epidemic plaguing this country, and the release of dangerous perpetrators will not mitigate the abuse that women and girls experience on a daily basis.”