The prisons minister, Crispin Blunt, who seems to make a habit of embarrassing the government (he promoted the idea of "prison parties" [2] and suggested that soldiers could be used by probation chiefs as cheap labour [3]), has just left a huge hostage to fortune and described the riots as an "exceptional" event that will lead to a "one-off increase" [4] in the prison population. Given that there is every possibility of further civil unrest, his comments are premature to say the least. As Tom Watson [5] observes, there is now a "newly primed timebomb under his career".

Blunt said that he was "completely confident" that the system could cope but the prison population is now at a record high of 86,654, just 1,439 places below operational capacity, and a recent Ministry of Justice memo [6] warned of outbreaks of violence between rioters and serving prisoners. Two young prisoners, who were arrested after the disorder, were hospitalised last week after a "nasty" assault at Cookham Wood Young Offenders Institution in Kent. As the Prison Reform Trust has warned, parts of the system are "becoming human warehouses, doing little more than banging people up in overcrowded conditions, with regimes that are hard pressed to offer any employment or education."

The coalition still plans to cut more than 2,500 prison places but Blunt declared that there would be places "for all those sent to prison by the courts", adding that "we will continue to do that regardless of how many people are sent to prison." Blunt is almost certain to be moved by Cameron at a future reshuffle, so it will be left to his successor to reconcile this pledge with Ken Clarke's ambitious justice reforms.