Rioters to Get Custodial Sentences Despite Overcrowded Prisons

Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson says there is sufficient capacity in England’s jails for rioters to be given custodial sentences, despite the government announcing plans last month to release prisoners early to ease overcrowding. Johnson—a former chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee—also said courts could sit overnight to fast-track prosecutions. That would be a repeat of what was done in 2011, in the wake of serious rioting sparked by the shooting of a black man, Mark Duggan, by a police officer, in Tottenham, north London. Serious disorder took place over the weekend in Hull, Liverpool, and Middlesbrough as protests against high levels of immigration turned into riots, with attacks on police, vandalism of property, and looting of shops....