Britain could lock up prisoners in ships

LONDON: The British government is looking at using ships as prisons because land-based jails are saturated, the Home Office said on Saturday.

The prison population for England and Wales hit 79,714 on Friday -- only 65 below an all-time high hit two weeks ago -- and in some regions police station cells are being used to house prisoners because of the squeeze on jails.

Now the Home Office is considering the possibility of keeping prisoners offshore, despite previous criticism of this solution by the prisons watchdog.

"We have advertised a contract or contracts to supply vessels of 200 to 800 custodial places in the Official Journal of the European Union," a Home Office spokeswoman said.

Britain's only modern prison ship, HMS Weare, which was sold recently after being closed last year, was condemned by chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers as "merely an expensive container -- and in the wrong place" in 2004.