'One-in-four' prison inmates in overcrowded cells

Close to a quarter of all prisoners in England and Wales were kept in overcrowded cells in the year to April, a prison reform charity has said.

The Howard League for Penal Reform said figures it obtained via a Freedom of Information request showed about 19,140 inmates on average were made to share a cell designed for one person.

A further 777 were made to sleep three to a cell in rooms designed for two, but ministers said all prisons were run within "safe population levels".

Clive Coleman reports.