CHANNINGS Wood Prison is running out of cells – and campaigners are warning that safety of staff and inmates is at risk as the prison population increases.

Ministry of Justice figures show that the Denbury jail has capacity for 698 inmates. In March, it was operating at 97 per cent of its capacity, with room for just 19 more prisoners.

Dartmoor is suffering a similar squeeze with a 98 per cent capacity rate.

Campaigners say that the unchecked rise of the prison population is responsible for the huge increase in assaults on staff and other inmates – a situation described last week as a ‘national emergency.’

Figures released last month showed that 175 assaults were recorded at Channings Wood in 2017, more than triple the number in 2012. Of those attacks, 36 were on staff.

There were also 233 cases of self-harm recorded in the prison last year. In 2012, there were just 89.

The director of the Prison Reform Trust, Peter Dawson, said: ‘Overcrowding isn’t simply a case of being forced to share a confined space for up to 23 hours a day where you must eat, sleep and go to the toilet.

‘It directly undermines all the basics of a decent prison system, including work, safety and rehabilitation.’

He added: ‘Despite a virtually permanent programme of prison building, overcrowding has been an unchanging reality of our prison system since 1994. Building prisons isn’t the solution – breaking our addiction to imprisonment is.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said last week: ‘This shameful rise in violence and self-injury is the direct result of policy decisions to allow the number of people behind bars to grow unchecked while starving prisons of resources.

‘This is a national emergency, and the Government must respond boldly and urgently.’

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: ‘Prison numbers can fluctuate, which is why we have robust plans in place to ensure we always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts.

‘We will always ensure there are enough cells across the prison estate, and manage this in a way that gives taxpayers the best possible value for money.

We are investing £1.3 billion to build modern new establishments, with up to 10,000 new prison places and better education facilities.’