TEIGNbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross has secured an adjournment debate in the Commons next Tuesday on sentencing and prison overcrowding. The debate comes in the wake of the release on bail of convicted paedophile Keith Morris, pending a pre-sentence report, and Judge Graham Cottle's remarks that 'if this case had been here last week it would have been over by now and he would be in Exeter prison'. Mr Younger-Ross said: 'The judge was very clear that he would have sent him [Morris] down, but because of Reid's letter, he was released on bail.' It follows Home Secretary John Reid's comments about overcrowding in prisons. Mr Younger-Ross said that he will raise the issue of large numbers of inmates with drug problems and mental health problems in prison who do not belong there but should be getting the help they need in more suitable surroundings. As far as the Morris case was concerned, he said: 'Either the judge was wrongly making a political point or John Reid has misled the judges in what he said and what he wrote and hasn't provided adequate prison spaces to deal with the current crisis. It clearly indicates that one of them should consider their position.' Home Office figures published on Friday showed that the total prison population stood at 80,002, perilously close to its maximum capacity – including police cells – of 80,716. Latest figures for Channings Wood, Denbury, published last December, gave a population of 657 prisoners – against an operational capacity of 667. At Dartmoor, the picture was much the same, with a population of 611, just under an operational capacity of 625. Exeter had 486 prisoners, against an operational capacity of 533. A Home Office spokesman was unwilling to say whether there was capacity at Exeter prison on Friday, but said that additional police cells were available under Operation Safeguard and, if necessary, Morris could have been sent to a different local prison. She said that the Home Secretary's statement was not unprecedented and merely highlighted existing guidelines. 'The guidelines make clear that serious, persistent and violent offenders should get a custodial sentence. The judge exercised his judgement within these guidelines.' Under a prison building programme, 8,000 new places will be available by 2012, with the first new prison due to open in Merseyside this spring. In addition, the prison service has 400 court cells and police cells available as overflow capacity under Operation Safeguard.