{"id":7567,"date":"2026-09-21T11:54:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=7567"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:54:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:54:30","slug":"prisons-in-england-and-wales-asked-to-add-second-beds-breaching-safety-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/09\/21\/prisons-in-england-and-wales-asked-to-add-second-beds-breaching-safety-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"PRISONS IN ENGLAND AND WALES ASKED TO ADD SECOND BEDS, BREACHING SAFETY LIMITS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Guardian has reported that the Prison Service has drawn up plans to \u201cdouble up\u201d hundreds of prisoners in temporary prefabricated cells built for one person, at the request of the Ministry of Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Amid the ongoing overcrowding crisis in England and Wales, governors of ten category C prisons have been asked to sign off the installation of second beds in \u2018rapid deployment cells\u2019, which would increase the overall capacity of the prison estate by 476. The units, which typically measure 2.9 metres by 3.4 metres and include a bed, toilet and shower, were placed in the grounds of more than 15 prisons as a temporary solution to past overcrowding problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Governors and prison officers, however, maintain that the numbers being proposed could breach health and safety laws and make jails unsafe for prisoners, staff and the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers Association, commented:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cBy law our members cannot strike, but I know they would walk out on health and safety grounds if asked to oversee prisons which cannot cope with the numbers being proposed. Creating more space increases the pressure on an already overcrowded prison estate and risks the stability of prisons. If the government are convinced that early release schemes are sufficient, you have to ask why they are now insisting prisons source every available bit of spare capacity.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Andrea Coomber, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, called the proposal \u2018an act of desperation\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cRapid deployment cells were themselves meant to be a short-term response but, ironically, they have come to be seen as being among the more positive parts of the prison estate, with fewer issues related to violence, debt and drug misuse. The risk now is that all this will be undermined as more and more people get crammed in.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are currently 87,111 people in prison in England and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/wales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>Wales<\/u><\/a>. Under the Ministry of Justice\u2019s own definition of safety and decency, the prison estate should not hold more than 81,616.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For further information, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2026\/sep\/16\/leaked-emails-reveal-plans-to-double-up-prisoners-in-one-person-prefab-cells\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>click here.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Guardian has reported that the Prison Service has drawn up plans to \u201cdouble up\u201d hundreds of prisoners in temporary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Amelie","author_link":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/author\/amelie\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The Guardian has reported that the Prison Service has drawn up plans to \u201cdouble up\u201d hundreds of prisoners in temporary [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7568,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7567\/revisions\/7568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}