Shropshire's Stoke Heath Prison is 100 inmates over capacity

Stoke Heath Prison, near Market Drayton, is currently 16 per cent overcrowded according to the Ministry of Justice's monthly prison population figures.

Its certified normal accommodation (CNA) is 662, but currently has a population of 771. Its capacity is 782.

CNA is the Prison Service's own measure of accommodation, which represents the good and decent standard accommodation.

Stoke Heath's population figures rank it as the 35th worst in the country for overcrowding.

Neighbouring prisons in Staffordshire also remain overcrowded, the figures have revealed.

Oakwood, which is the largest prison in the UK, is also currently 16 per cent overcrowded.

The Featherstone-based prison has a CNA of 1,605, but currently has a population of 1,863.

Oakwood's population figures rank it as the 34th worst in the country for overcrowding. Its neighbour HMP Featherstone is also overcrowded. With a population of 646 but a CNA of 611, the prison is currently running at 106 per cent recommended capacity.

This ranks it 58th out of the UK's 117 prisons. HMP Stafford, which houses paedophile Rolf Harris, is also slightly over recommended capacity. It is running at 101 per cent with a CNA of 741 but a population of 750. This ranks it 76th. HMP Brinsford, the young offender's institution on the same site as HMP Featherstone, has seven spaces before it passes its CNA recommendation.

These population figures are part of the latest release by the Prison Reform Trust, which has combined them with the annual prison performance statistics to show that the top 30 most overcrowded prisons in the UK are twice as likely to be rated as failing.

In these performance ratings, released earlier this year, Stoke Heath, Oakwood, Brinsford and Stafford are all meeting 'the majority of targets' while Featherstone is 'of concern'.

HMPs Leeds, Swansea and Wandsworth, which are the three most over-populated prisons in the country, were all rated as 'of concern'.

Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "The bleak state of our prisons is a political failure, shared by all governments of the last two and a half decades. Three years of austerity have now brutally exposed the system's inherent vulnerability, and a comprehensive strategy to control the demand for prison, and so to end overcrowding, must form part of this government's response."

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: "The Justice Secretary has been clear that our prisons are in need of reform.

"We are investing £1.3 billion to build modern new establishments, with 10,000 new prison places and better education facilities."