Prison inmate numbers in England and Wales have risen to an all-time high for the second week in a row.

A Prison Service spokesman said the total peaked at 80,812, up 154 since last week, and means jails now have just 320 spare places.

The total includes the 364 people being held in police cells under emergency accommodation called "Operation Safeguard".

On May 9, jails policy passed to the new Ministry of Justice under the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, from the Home Office as part of a radical shake-up.

At this point last year the number of prisoners was 77,640, nearly 3,200 lower than Friday's figure.

Left-wing think-tank the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) said 12,000 inmates - such as drug addicts, those with mental health problems and some female offenders - would be better off outside the prison system.

IPPR director Nick Pearce said: "Until we have a fundamental rethink, we will keep facing crises. Prison is an expensive and ineffective way of warehousing social problems.

"If more drug and mental health treatment was provided outside prisons and women sentenced to less than six months were given community sentences, we could stabilise our prison population to 10 per cent lower than it is today."