Prison close to bursting

Lewes prison had 517 prisoners at the start of this week.

The prison's "certifiable normal accommodation" limit, the number of prisoners who can be fitted in comfortably, is only 485.

However, the official capacity, the number which can be squeezed in when "all available space is used", is just 546.

The Home Office said Lewes was one of a number of jails across England and Wales operating beyond its normal accommodation capacity.

There are 293 spare places in prisons nationally and the prison population stands at a record 71,360.

The figures have prompted a fresh debate about whether judges and magistrates are failing to explore all the alternatives to a custodial sentence.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Simon Hughes said the number of prisoners was a "sign of failure, not success".

Home Office minister Hilary Benn said: "Sentencers should look carefully at the choice of custody for those offenders for whom prison may not be the most effective form of sentence."

The Prime Minister's wife, Cherie Blair, was last night expected to enter the argument by declaring many inmates should not be inside at all.

In a speech due to be given in London, she was expected to describe how she has toured some of the country's most infamous jails and interviewed prisoners including drug dealers and young offenders.

She was to tell her audience the scale of the jail population was "crippling" the prison system.

Mrs Blair, a leading criminal lawyer, said: "It is particularly worrying more than one in six of the prison population is on remand. In other words they have yet to be tried or sentenced."

John Wilson, deputy governor of Lewes prison, said: "It is not true to say we are at bursting point as we have two capacities.

"One is a comfortable operating limit and the other is our absolute limit which we cannot go above.

"The figures show we are operating between the two like many other community prisons across the country."