Prisons in England reached a crisis point under the last government as ‘tough on crime’ policies led to overcrowding after decades of structural failings and entrenched issues.
An independent review into prison capacity, released last month, found the prison system was ‘in crisis’ between autumn 2023 and the summer of 2024, but under Rishi Sunak the government refused to cut the number of prisoners held in jails across the country until ‘the next predictable cliff edge.’
The review by Dame Anne Owers focuses on the failures of successive governments to address the crisis we face today, where sentencing policy and political decisions over decades has meant increased prison population and more unsafe prisons.
With the prison population estimated to reach 105,200 by March 2029, the issue is set to worsen. Prison capacity growth and the creation of new facilities have been unable to match the escalating demand for places. Since coming into power, the Labour government has introduced measures including widespread early release of prisoners. Yet such short-term fixes, including ramping up prison-building, has failed to resolve a deep-rooted and enduring capacity crisis.
In response to the review, the Howard League for Penal Reform has pointed to sentence inflation as a cause of the crisis.
Andrew Neilson, Director of Campaigns, said: ‘This review into prison capacity spells out in forensic detail how the government has found itself facing the prospect of running out of cells. It is a crisis, or more accurately a series of crises, that has been brewing over several decades and across successive governments.’
He continued: ‘Over the years governments have responded to sentence inflation not by trying to manage demand on the prison system by tackling that inflation, but by focusing on the supply side with commitments to build more and more prison places.
As Dame Anne Owers says, prison capacity is not just about creating enough space to house people but about whether prisons have the capacity and the resources to provide safe environments that can reduce reoffending. Sadly, the prison system as it stands is very far from being able to meet that ambition, and pledges to build more prison places risk simply making a dysfunctional system even larger and even more dysfunctional again.’
Dame Owers described how ‘population pressure has also constrained prisons’ capacity to operate safe, positive and purposeful environments that can reduce the likelihood of reoffending.’ Ultimately the effect is felt by prisoners who are already marginalised upon release or those serving shorter sentences, as they often lose access to rehabilitative programs when resources are limited. This also has consequences for victims and the wider justice system as reoffending rates continue to increase.
The review recommended tackling the cause of the capacity crisis, rather than just addressing the symptoms, through strategic long-term planning. Other recommendations include establishing an independent advisory body to monitor prison and probation capacity and creating a mandate for the HMPPS Board to evaluate the prison service, consulting the Chief Inspector of Prisons, and monitoring progress on the 10-year prison and community capacity strategies.
The Prison Trust Reform has highlighted the urgent need to prioritise rehabilitation and effective community-based alternatives. In a statement the charity said: ‘This report must be a wake-up call. We cannot afford to indulge in the fantasy that building more prisons will solve this crisis — history shows it won’t. Instead, we must confront the reality: reversing the long-term rise in sentence lengths and investing in rehabilitation are the only sustainable ways forward.’
