The fact that we can’t even keep enough riot squad officers in prisons is a sign of a much deeper crisis

Editorial: It is in the most neglected and least reported public services that the problems caused by unrealistic funding assumptions are most likely to turn critical

Justice secretary Alex Chalk has taken emergency action this week to release some offenders two months before their sentences were due to end (PA)

The Independent has raised the alarm in its reporting of the state of Britain’s prisons over the past year. Our warning that overcrowding was becoming serious came long before Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, took emergency action a few days ago to release a large number of offenders two months before their sentences were due to end.

We have reported on the problems with recruiting staff, and the pile-up of prisoners held on remand as court backlogs push the system to capacity and beyond. Now we report the shortage of “Tornado squad” riot officers, those trained to deal with violent disorder, who are the last line of defence in a prison estate that is bursting at the seams.

Prisons are rarely a political priority and are always likely to suffer from underfunding. But the combination of the recruitment crisis throughout the public services and the rise in prisoner numbers caused by longer sentences and court delays has turned a chronic problem into an acute one.