Overcrowding in England’s Prisons: Emergency Responses to Long-Term Problems in the Criminal Justice System
Britain’s new Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, visited HMP Bedford and HMP Five Wells (Northamptonshire) on 12 July 2024. At HMP Five Wells, she announced the government’s new early release scheme, which may allow as many as 20,000 prisoners to leave detention early. Starting in September 2024, the automatic release point for prisoners serving determinate custodial sentences for less serious crimes will be lowered from 50 per cent of the length of sentence to 40 per cent. Early release on supervised probation (electronic tagging, curfews, etc) will not apply to sexual offenders, violent offenders serving more than four years, those jailed for domestic abuse, and terrorists. To boost the numbers of an understaffed probation service, the minister also announced the recruitment of a thousand additional trainee probation officers by March 2025. Just prior to these announcements, new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer professed to be shocked by the scale of the prisons’ crisis in England and Wales.
Prisons, like hospitals, are best run with some spare capacity. Yet, in July 2024, England and Wales had 87, 453 prisoners, with a maximum prison capacity of 88, 864. Since the beginning of 2023, jails have been operating at 99 per cent capacity, taking in an additional hundred net prisoners every week. Overcrowding, a consequence of the growing prison population, refers to the situation in which some prison cells contain more occupants than their intended capacity. Britain has the highest incarceration and re-offending rates in western Europe, as well as the largest female prison population, with 12 prisons accommodating adult female offenders. A small subset of 2,796 people is trapped in jail under imprisonment for public protection sentences, with no clear date of release. The adult male prison population is currently 83, 755, out of a “usable operational capacity” of 84, 463, leaving just 708 available spaces. Once this number falls below 300, prisons will not be able to accept people sent directly from the courts. Ideally, around 1,425 prison cell spaces should be kept free in men’s prisons at all times to allow for sudden influxes of inmates.
The prison population has doubled over the last thirty years, while average sentence lengths, excluding life sentences, have risen from 14.5 months in 2012 to 20.9 months in 2023. The outgoing Conservative government wanted those convicted of more serious crimes to serve at least two-thirds, rather than a half, of their sentences behind bars. Despite an official appetite for incarceration and punishment, the building of new prisons has been delayed just as the stock of existing prisons has continued to deteriorate. Cuts in the name of austerity to courts, prisons, prison staff, and probation services have only made matters worse.
The prison estate in England and Wales comprises a mix of 120 publicly- and privately-run institutions. Fifteen prisons in England and Wales are managed by one of three private sector companies-G4S, Serco, and Sodexo. The UK now has the most privatised prison system in Europe, since the opening of the first privately run prison in the UK, HMP Wolds, in May 1992. As profit maximisation is the driving force of the private sector, there are concerns that cost-cutting measures may lead to reduced staffing levels, less time out of cells, and not enough attention to rehabilitation (education, work) in private prisons. Meanwhile, HM Inspectorate of Prisons has ascertained that many public-sector prisons are dilapidated and overcrowded, with squalid and insanitary conditions. It is not unsurprising that around a third of the prison estate dates back to the Victorian era. The backlog of maintenance work threatens prison safety and security. Within prisons, the risks of violence, unresolved mental health issues, and deliberate self-harm pose a constant threat.
Prisoners are a mixed group of people, falling into one of four security categories, from A to D, with the highest risk assigned to category A prisoners. Prisons serve various purposes, including reception prisons for those awaiting trial (on remand) or sentencing, training prisons for category B or C offenders, resettlement prisons for category C or category D prisoners being prepared for release, and high security prisons for category A prisoners or those serving longer sentences.
The early release of convicted prisoners remains controversial. Right-wing, “tough-on-crime” media outlets and politicians, together with some victims of crime, believe in the retributive value of imprisonment and the deterrent effect of tougher sentences. Retribution, however, is centred around the deprivation of liberties, rather than active of punishment, which some would prefer as more appropriate under certain circumstances. Others are of the belief that sentencing guidelines need to be reviewed and made more lenient for some non-violent offences. Community orders are often more appropriate for those convicted of less serious crimes, with a focus on rehabilitation to prevent re-offending. In particular, short sentences are considered of little value, often leading to a revolving door of repeated incarceration as inmates fall in with criminal networks inside prison, rather than returning to productive activity back in the community.
The appointment of James Timpson, CEO of the Timpson Group, which runs a chain of key-cutting and shoe-repair outlets and is known for employing ex-prisoners, as minister for prisons, parole, and probation, with a seat in the House of Lords, has been widely acclaimed. He is a prominent advocate for the rehabilitation of prisoners, having served as chair of the Employers Forum for Reducing Re-offending and of the Prison Reform Trust, and also believes that only a third of the prisoners in England and Wales should “definitely be there.”
Prison is an expensive option, and has not proved to be the panacea for tackling much low-level crime. The choice is between expanding the operational capacity of the prison estate or reducing the size of the prison population, in other words between custody and community. Community sentencing allows offenders to contribute to society, facilitates reintegration with the outside world, and lowers the risk of re-offending. Within prisons, investment in education and training pays off dividends in reducing recidivism. The government’s emergency reactive measures need to be followed up by a wider rethink about the purposes of detention in prison, recognising that when it comes to dealing with criminality, one size most definitely does not fit all.
Ashis Banerjee