‘Powder keg waiting to blow’: UK plans to build 1,000 portacabins to deal with prison overcrowding

British jails are being plunged into crisis as they face record levels of overcrowding, new figures reveal. Shocking statistics released by the Ministry of Justice show more than 85,000 inmates are now locked up in England and Wales, with just hundreds of spaces remaining in prisons across the two countries. Prison unions say the situation is a “powder keg waiting to blow”, while a watchdog told The Independent he had warned ministers of the stark dangers of overcrowding. The government is building 1,000 portacabins – officially called “rapid deployment cells” – in a bid to ease overcrowding, while doubling inmates up in single cells and accelerating moves into open prisons.