OFFICIALS have rejected claims by a group campaigning for fewer prison sentences that a North-East jail is overcrowded.

Smart Justice, which wants the courts to use non-custodial options such as community sentence and probation for non-violent offenders, says figures show that category-B Durham Prison has 73 per cent more detainees than it should.

The group says that the jail's population recorded at the end of April was 648 compared with a capacity of 374.

Ten inmates have killed themselves in the past two years or so and last year an inquest ruled that the lack of an effective system to identify prisoners at risk played a part in the suicide in 2002 of a prisoner charged with the attempted murder of his girlfriend.

Smart Justice's North-East campaigns officer Helen Attewell said vulnerable prisoners might not get the care and support they needed when prison staff were stretched.

"I think it is inevitable you will see a rise in self-harm and suicide attempts in that situation,'' she said.

A Home Office spokeswoman has rejected the claim. She said: "The suggestion that Durham is over-full is wrong.

"There were 30-odd places that weren't being used. The prison is operating within safe parameters.''