The prison population in England and Wales has shot up by almost 6,000 prisoners over the last 12 months to a total of 87,124. According to the Howard League for Penal Reform’s Prison Watch data, there are now 9,074 more prisoners than there should be under the Ministry of Justice’s own ‘safety and decency’ criteria.
Concerns about overcrowding in UK prisons were cited by defence lawyers in Germany this week, who successfully argued that their client should not be extradited to the UK. According to a report in the Guardian, Westminster magistrates’ court issued an international arrest warrant asking for a man accused of drug trafficking to be returned to the UK. Karlsruhe higher regional court in south-west Germany failed to receive the assurances it sought about UK prisons. It was reported that the court received a response from a prison in Manchester on the day of the deadline advising that the government were creating 20,000 new prison spaces to tackle overcrowding.
‘This is an embarrassment for the UK,’ wrote solicitor Jonathan Goldsmith the Law Society Gazette. ‘There have been similar court decisions before under the European arrest warrant framework, but in relation to member states whose records on prisons and human rights the UK would not wish to compare itself with.’
He also cited a recent similar case where a man was refused extradition from the Republic of Ireland to Scotland on account of his mental health needs and the poor conditions in Scottish prisons.
The Conservative government has committed to creating 20,000 new prison spaces through refurbishment and new building projects by the mid-2020s. They say the spaces will be filled on account of a ‘crack-down on crime’ and the recruitment of new police officers. This comes as prison sentences have also become significantly longer, with the average sentence rising more than a third from 2009 to 2019 alone.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told the Guardian it was ‘doing more than ever to deliver safe and secure prisons that rehabilitate offenders, cut crime and protect the public’. ‘We continue to press ahead with delivering 20,000 additional, modern prison places and our £100m investment in tough security measures – including X-ray body scanners – is stopping the weapons, drugs and phones that fuel violence behind bars.’
