THE number of people in prison is at a record high, according to latest government figures.

Home Office statistics reveal 81,135 people are being held.

And the latest local breakdown shows the national picture is reflected in Greater Manchester, with Rochdale's Buckley Hall jail just one inmate short of the safe maximum capacity at the end of last month.

Manchester's Strangeways, Salford's Forest Bank and Styal women's prison in Cheshire are also nearing their limits.

As reported in the M.E.N., there are provisions to house overspill prisoners in Greater Manchester police station cells. Cells at Ashton magistrates' court have also been used.

According to the latest figures, Buckley Hall prison in Rochdale has a safe maximum capacity of 385, and in August it had reached 384. Things were a little easier at the privately run Forest Bank prison where there were 1,107 inmates and 17 spare places.

Styal was operating with the same margin of 17 spare places with 443 inmates. At Strangeways there were 24 spare places. The high security prison can safely hold 1,269 people. It currently houses 1,245.

Because figures are only published on Fridays, there will have been times when the jail population has been even higher, the Ministry of Justice said.

Lucie Russell, director of SmartJustice, criticised the government for not providing a long-term solution to the problem of overcrowding.

She said: "Prison numbers continue to soar and yet there is still no long-term strategy to tackle the crisis. Prisons are full up with the mentally ill and drug addicts for whom it is mainly an expensive way of making them worse.

"At a cost of £50,000 per person per year, this just isn't an effective use of taxpayers' money."

According to the national breakdown, there are 81,135 prisoners across the country with 780 spare cells available for people arrested and charged over the weekend.

Shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert said: "Ministers have repeatedly ignored the warnings and refused to provide adequate prison capacity.

"Releasing criminals early has put the public at risk and failed to make any real impact on prison numbers which, as predicted, have now reached a record high.

"Soon police cells will also be full, at which point the Government will face a serious crisis. Jack Straw ignored this issue in his speech this week. He must now explain what he proposes to do."

He added: "Any extension of the failing early release scheme must be ruled out and instead emergency secure accommodation must be found."

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