PLANS to double the length of jail sentences that magistrates can hand out are “a knee-jerk reaction” and will worsen the prisons overcrowding crisis, lawyers warned today.

The government is considering giving magistrates the power to pass sentences of up to one year, twice the length of jail term they can currently hand down, in a bid to reduce the number of prisoners held on remand, according to reports.

About a fifth of the prison population are suspects being held on remand, and a third will either go on to be cleared and released or will not receive a jail term.

In 2022, then-justice secretary Dominic Raab introduced the scheme, but this was dropped after a year.

Criminal Bar Association chairwoman Mary Prior said: “This will simply make things worse.

“This is a knee-jerk reaction, done without consulting, once again, the criminal barristers or solicitors who deal every day with these cases.

“The government must stop simply tinkering around the edges of a system in the midst of collapse.”

Ms Prior said that the plans would “only increase pressure on reduced prison space, by speedily raising the much bigger sentenced prisoner population.”

Howard League for Penal Reform director Andrew Neilson said: “That ministers may be considering the revival of a policy that was dropped only last year is yet another indication of the desperation in the prison system today.

“Even with the early release scheme now in operation, many jails in England and Wales are still severely overcrowded.

“Any move that could lead to another surge in the prison population should be resisted.”

The Ministry of Justice said it will “continue to consider other long-term options to deal with the prisons crisis in a sustainable way.”