LONDON: Thousands of prison officers across England and Wales started a 24-hour strike over pay on Wednesday, forcing jails, many of them seriously overcrowded, to lock offenders in their cells.

The illegal walk-out, which has led to picket lines being formed outside many prisons, prompted the justice ministry to go to London’s High Court to secure an injunction compelling strikers to get back to work.

“We expect prison officers to return to work with immediate effect,” a department spokesman said after the ruling.

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA), the trade union which organised the strike, is set to meet later on Wednesday to discuss its reaction to the ruling. The strike, which started at 7:00 am (0600 GMT), is the latest headache for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government over the prisons system, which frequently hits the headlines because of overcrowding. There are over 80,000 people in prisons in England and Wales, of which 104 are held in police cells under a special scheme to cope with space shortages, according to this month’s Prison Service figures. —AFP