Prisons in crisis: can UK cope with hundreds of riot inmates?

A week’s worth of rioting, and more than 400 arrests so far, will only ramp up pressure on the nation’s crumbling prison service.

The government has pledged hundreds of extra places to deal with the fallout, but unions are warning that a wave of new inmates could ‘cripple’ already struggling jails.

Today, HMP Wandsworth has been blasted by the prisons watchdog over ‘shocking conditions’ stemming from failures of leadership ‘at every level’.