UK CRACKDOWN ON FREE SPEECH TRIGGERS PRISON OVERCROWDING EMERGENCY

Mario Nawfal

@MarioNawfal
🇬🇧UK CRACKDOWN ON FREE SPEECH TRIGGERS PRISON OVERCROWDING EMERGENCY

After the UK sent people to prison for posting on social media during recent riots, emergency overcrowding procedures have now been triggered.

The longstanding measures, known as Operation Early Dawn, allow defendants to be held in police cells until prison beds become available.

The operation is a contingency measure that has been used for very short periods – usually no longer than a week – to manage immediate, localized pressures on prisons.

Nev Kemp, of the National Police Chiefs’ Council:

“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.”

At least 99 people have been sentenced so far for a variety of crimes related to the riots, including violent disorder and posting on social media.

Source: The Guardian