The prison population in England and Wales has exceeded 80,000 for the first time, the Home Office has confirmed.
The figures came as Home Secretary John Reid held a summit with leading experts to try to find a solution to the prison overcrowding crisis.
The Home Office said numbers were being closely monitored and efforts ongoing to "investigate options for providing further increases in capacity".
Last month a plan to ease overcrowding by using police cells came into force.
Operation Safeguard was last used in 2002, when 275 prisoners were placed in police cells as a result of an overcrowding crisis. The number of prisoners then was 72,000.
'Political auction'
The Home Office said the number of prisoners in England and Wales held in prison custody today was 79,908, while the number held in police stations was 152 - totalling 80,060.
The system has a capacity for 80,377 prisoners, including 220 spaces available in police cells under Operation Safeguard.
Deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, Geoff Dobson, said the population had "accelerated through the 80,000 barrier not as a result of any strategy or planning but because criminal justice policy has become a party political auction at the taxpayer's expense."
He said this left the prison system unable to deliver the public safety, rehabilitation or decency it should.
"It is time to stop the scandal of needless overcrowding, needless imprisonment and switch investment to drug treatment in the community, closing the gaps in mental health care and crime prevention programmes for young people," he added.
Jackie Worrall, director of policy and public affairs for crime-reduction charity Nacro, called the latest figures "extremely concerning".
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