Inmates board prison ship

The first inmates were safely loaded aboard a controversial new prison ship yesterday.

From early morning the men, all low-security category D inmates, were taken by buses to Weymouth in Dorset from neighbouring jails. Twenty-one were expected to spend the night moored off the Dorset coast abroad the HMP Weare, which is Britain's first prison ship since Victorian times. The number of inmates will reach 50 within the next few days and could eventually top 400. Meanwhile, National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders' principal officer Paul Cavadino said using the ship highlighted the need to address the soaring prisons population in England and Wales which now stands at 60,855. He said: "The pressure of accommodating increasing numbers of prisoners will persist while current sentencing policies continue."