Prisoners in the court cells that cost more than the Ritz

The cells are a last resort because there are not enough prison places.

So far this year, the bill for the 77 occasions they have been used is a staggering £140,000.

Equivalent to £1,800 each per night, the daily cost works out at £200 more than a deluxe suite at the Ritz in London's Piccadilly.

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Lord Falconer, who took charge of the new Ministry of Justice last week, has ruled out the early release of thousands of criminals.

This means prison overcrowding is expected to worsen in coming months and the bill for court cells could rocket.

Already, £5million a month is being squandered on keeping up to 400 inmates in police cells each night.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: "These figures show the voodoo economics of prison overcrowding.

"A standard prison cell is already extremely expensive, costing more than enough to keep an extra police officer on patrol.

"Now the overcrowding crisis is costing us so much we might as well be putting prisoners up in the Ritz. The Government's failure to manage the prison population is to blame for this absurd waste of money."

Court cells are used when no room is available in police stations.

Court buildings in London, as well as Mansfield, Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester and Bristol, are all on standby to take convicts. It costs £1,800 a night because private security guards have to be paid overtime to supervise the inmates, and ensure they are properly cared for.

Providing hot meals to the convicts is another significant expense.

Those held in police cells have £12 spent on them every day, as meals such as takeaways are brought in from outside. The figure for court cells is likely to be the same, or higher.

If they were inside prison - where the large scale of operation keeps overheads low - inmates would be fed for an average of £1.87 a day.

Despite the huge cost, the facilities inside court cells are basic. Prisoners sleep on wooden benches and there are no toilet facilities. One prisoner being held below a North London court has already tried to kill himself.

For £200 less per night, guests at the Ritz would enjoy stunning views of Green Park.

The hotel says of its £1,000-pernight suites: "The word deluxe doesn't begin to do these rooms justice.

"With marble halls in many, deep carpets, rich, heavy curtains, antique paintings and furnishings and a staggering 74 square metres of space, breathtaking might be a better adjective."

Currently, no inmates are in court cells. But, with the prison population standing at 80,456 last Friday - including 274 convicts in police cells - there are only 600 spaces remaining and it is only a matter of time before they are used again.

Charles Bushell, general secretary of the Prison Governors' Association, has accused the Government of being "ruinously wasteful of public money" rather than acting to deal with prison numbers.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Court cells are used only as a measure of last resort if accommodation in prison and police cells is exhausted.

"If a request to use court cells is made, it is granted only on the condition that the cells will not be used to keep a person known to be at risk of self-harm and that it is for one night only with the exception of people taken into court on a Saturday, who may be kept for two.

"We use cells that would otherwise be empty overnight.

"The Home Office will be responsible for meeting all costs.

"Once court cells are activated, the National Offender Management Service pays for the additional available capacity, regardless of whether it has been used or not."