After police detained hundreds of people this month for widespread riots, Britain will utilize an emergency mechanism to hold suspected offenders in police station cells until it can find room for them in its congested prisons.

The administration of Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday that the jail capacity problem has gotten worse due to the arrest of over 1,100 people in connection with racist acts of violence against Muslims and migrants. This has already compelled ministers to declare that they will permit jails to release more inmates early.

Suspects will only be called to court under the new, temporary provision if it is verified that a cell is available in one of the more than 100 jails around the nation. They'll be detained in a police station until then.

"We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks," prisons minister James Timpson said in a statement. "As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating."

Overcrowded prisons have presented Starmer, who took office last month, with an early crisis, leaving his government with unpalatable and costly choices.

Britain has western Europe's highest rate of incarceration and prisoner numbers have risen sharply since the pandemic, due to longer sentences, court delays and a requirement for serious offenders to serve at least 65% of their sentences behind bars.

Under plans announced by Starmer last month, most prisoners will become eligible for release after serving 40% of their sentences behind bars, down from 50% previously.

Monday's measures are expected to tackle lower prison capacity in the north of England, a region affected by the recent rioting, which followed misinformation that the suspect in the murder of three young girls was an Islamist migrant.