With prisons close to capacity, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed Operation Safeguard has been reactivated.
Whilst prisoners have never been temporarily held in police cells in West Mercia, custody suites across the three counties are prepared if required.
Responding to the news, Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion said:
“This is a symptom of broken system that needs fixing. Local custody blocks should not be used to keep prisoners due to failings in our prisons to meet demand.
“In West Mercia we are playing our part, with record levels of police officers who are out in communities tackling crime, arresting and charging more offenders than ever before and using out of court resolutions to reduce reoffending.
“But the creaking courts and prison system is falling way short of the service local communities expect.
“The national Government needs to address the prison capacity crisis and quickly, by increasing prison places, setting a long-term plan to cut the backlog in our crown courts, and implementing the recommendations from the Sentencing Review when it’s published in the Spring.”
Find out more – Prisoners to be held in police cells to deal with overcrowding – BBC News