PRISONS in England and Wales are holding thousands more inmates than they were designed for, campaigners revealed today, despite Labour’s attempts to tackle the overcrowding problem through measures such as early release.

A study by the Howard League for Prison Reform shows that there are now more people behind bars than there were when the Labour government came to power last year.

It calls for an end to the imposition of increasingly longer sentences by judges.

Prisons and young offender institutions are holding 87,556 prisoners — 8,128 over their capacity of 79,428, said the league

The two most overcrowded prisons are Durham, which is 75 per cent over capacity, and Leeds, which holds 73 per cent more inmates than its intended maximum.

Durham is designed for 561 prisoners but contains 984, while Leeds should hold no more tha 655 but has 1,100. 

Howard League chief executive Andrea Coomber said: “It could not be clearer that further action is necessary.

“Making sentences longer and longer has put intolerable pressure on the system and dealing with the consequences takes valuable resources away from preventing crime and supporting victims.” 

Prison Officers Association (POA) general secretary Steve Gillan said: “The POA have put our concerns about a rising prison population in the public domain for the last 10 years.

“You will always need prisons to protect the public from serious criminality, but there is no doubt far too many people are sent to prison that could be diverted away from prison where incarceration does nothing but warehouse people for a few months.”

The Ministry of Justice was invited to comment.