Accounts from released inmates, leaked memos and reports by human rights groups have created a disturbing picture of how detainees have been treated.

Ministers are preparing to use government buildings as prisons to avoid having to release inmates on short sentences as jails risk being overwhelmed.

Many are also developing aftercare opportunities to help released inmates back into their communities.

Prison authorities will release inmates this weekend to accommodate arrested protesters, who will be taken away in a fleet of public buses converted into mobile holding cells.

Such projects keep newly released inmates in work and out of harm's way.