Bedbugs, disease outbreaks and asbestos leave prison cells empty

Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in Problems including bedbugs, disease, and asbestos are leaving prison cells empty , according to official data. The Ministry of Justice has revealed that 3,792 prison cells are empty as Labour grapples with a prison overcrowding crisis that has seen hundreds of offenders let out on early release . Reasons for these cells being empty include fire safety repairs, damage by prisoners, the spread of Legionella bacteria, mould, damp and leaks. Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy asked Catherine McKinnell how many prison cells are currently unusable due to the presence of bedbugs. Ms McKinnell, who is minister for prisons, probation and reducing reoffending, affirmed that as of last Monday, there were two places removed from operational capacity due to the presence of bedbugs. open image in gallery Prisoners are being released under the government’s early release scheme ( Getty ) The two places were at HMP Wayland , near Thetford in Norfolk, according to a table published by the minister. Inside Time, the newspaper for prisoners, reported that two men’s prisons in England called in specialist teams to tackle infestations of bed bugs in cells in July. A prisoner wrote to the paper to say that he was “detained in a cell infested by bed bugs” in HMP Wayland. Meanwhile, at least three cells at HMP Holme House on Teesside were affected by a “limited outbreak”, the paper reported. Data showed that 20 cells were out of action due to the spread of Legionella bacteria across HMP Hull and HMP Lincoln. A further 60 cells in Northumberland were unusable due to asbestos, while HMP Dartmoor has been closed since 2024 due to the presence of Radon gas. open image in gallery HMP Dartmoor in Devon (Ben Birchall/PA) ( PA Archive ) The most common reason for closing spaces was in order to enact the Fire Safety Improvement Programme, which rendered 2,255 cells empty across the UK. Meanwhile, 236 were closed because of damp, mould and leaks, while 162 were empty because of prisoner damage. Some 5,000 prisoners are scheduled to be released in stages over the next year as part of a scheme that aims to tackle prison overcrowding. This is down from 6,000 after ministers intervened to exempt rapists and the most serious child sex offenders. Ms McKinnell said: “The government inherited a prison capacity crisis after places increased by just 500 in 14 years, but we are pulling every lever available to make sure the country never runs out of spaces and we can keep dangerous offenders locked up.” The prison population was 86,557 with a headroom of 2,415, according to figures released by the Ministry of Justice last Monday.