British politicians call for prisoners to be set free to ease overcrowding

Three Westminster politicians called Thursday for Britain's prison population to be slashed by almost half.

The call, by former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and two former interior ministers, Ken Clarke and Jacqui Smith, comes after trouble flared at a number of prisons leading to a major riot involving 600 inmates at Birmingham Prison last month.

The cross-party trio said British jails have become unacceptably dangerous, and they suggest cutting the number being locked-up reduced from a current prison population of around 86,000 to 45,000.

Their intervention was welcomed by the Howard League for Penal Reform, Britain's leading campaign charity for a shake-up in the prison service.

The three politicians, in an article in Thursday's London Times newspaper describe the Birmingham riot as a wake-up call.

They said there had been a 31 percent increase in prison assaults in the past year, and one prisoner killed himself every three days.

"We believe that an escalating prison population has gone well beyond what is safe or sustainable. To restore order, security and purpose to our jails, ministers should now make it their policy to reduce prison numbers. If the tide is not turned soon, the prisons crisis will do untold damage to wider society," they wrote.

Frances Crook, CRO of the Howard League, said: "Three former Cabinet ministers, from across the political spectrum, are supporting our call to reduce the prison population to its level under Margaret Thatcher's premiership (when it was around 45,000)."

"With violence and suicide behind bars at record levels, and with re-offending rates alarmingly high, the need for radical reform is abundantly clear. We cannot build our way out of this crisis, and recruiting a few more staff will not be enough to make prisons safe and purposeful. The only solution is to have fewer prisoners."

Interior minister, the Home Secretary Amber Rudd, has announced an investigation into the causes of the Birmingham riot. Britain's current prison population is one of the highest in Europe. Enditem