PRESS ASSOCIATION -- The prison population is expected to hit record levels as increasing numbers of people are jailed for the recent looting and violence that swept across the UK.
Figures are predicted to show that the population in England and Wales has risen by 700 in the last week to 86,608.
President of the Prison Governors Association Eoin McLennan-Murray said there are currently 1,500 empty prison places available.
Figures released on Wednesday showed that so far a total of 1,297 people had appeared in court charged with offences linked to the recent riots, and because of the courts' tough approach two- thirds have been remanded in custody. This is in comparison with one in 10 last year for those charged with serious offences.
Mr McLennan-Murray said: "What is worrying is if the landscape of sentencing has changed. If the courts continue to be heavy-handed with other offences and use custody more readily than they have done previously then that would be problematic longer term."
Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns for the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the rush to send a message out was leading to "some very bad sentences, which will be overturned on appeal".
And leading criminal barrister John Cooper QC warned that judges and magistrates had a duty "not to be influenced by angry Britain", describing some of the sentences handed down already as "disproportionate and somewhat hysterical".
According to the Guardian, convicted rioters are being handed prison sentences that are on average 25% longer than normal.
The newspaper's analysis of 1,000 riot-related cases found that 70% of defendants have been remanded in custody to await crown court trial, and that 56 of 80 defendants already sentenced by magistrates were handed immediate prison sentences.
Half of those jailed were charged with handling stolen goods or theft, receiving an average of 5.1 months, the study found. This is 25% longer than a reported average custodial sentence of 4.1 months for such crimes during 2010. Those imprisoned for assaulting police officers were given sentences 40% longer than normal, and people convicted of public order offences were jailed for 33% longer than normal, the newspaper claimed.