Labour’s prison crisis: one of the most urgent issues facing the new government

Overcrowded prisons in England and Wales may be days away from running out of cells for convicted criminals and alleged violent offenders.

So what? The prison crisis has become one of the most urgent items facing the new Labour government. If it doesn’t tackle it, violence, drug usage and death rates could increase beyond the ability of the authorities to retain control.

• An explosion in prison numbers over the past 14 years due to longer sentences coupled with a decade of funding cuts has resulted in a dilapidated prison estate, along with little ability to create new spaces.
• Single cells are being used to accommodate two or even three inmates, increasing the pressure-cooker atmosphere.
• With the proportion of inmates to (often under-trained) prison guards soaring, the safety and wellbeing of prisoners is regularly compromised. Parc prison in Wales has seen 10 deaths in three months.

“The prison population is like a bath overflow,” said Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons. Unexpected drops in capacity – such as Dartmouth Prison having to suddenly shut cells due to the detection of radon gas – are why prison managers “rightly try to maintain a buffer, which is heavily eroded now.”

It’s bad. The Prison Governors’ Association warned that if the incoming government did not address the lack of space within a matter of weeks, “it will put the public at risk.” The association recommended that all prisoners – violent and non-violent – should be routinely released after serving 40 per cent of their sentence. This drastic measure would be safer, it said, than having nowhere left to incarcerate newly convicted serious offenders.

It’s getting worse. The Ministry of Justice has projected an increase in the number of inmates from the current 87,000 to nearly 106,000 by 2028. If the Institute of Government’s projection of 97,000 places by the same date is accurate, then 9,000 convicted criminals will have no cell to go to.

Urgent notifications. Taylor has issued a record number of urgent warnings over the past year to the Justice Secretary and Chancellor over the state of prisons, including:

• HMP Wandsworth, which the prison terror suspect Daniel Khalife allegedly escaped from in 2023, was found to be “crumbling, overcrowded, vermin-infested” as inexperienced staff struggled to manage the 1,500+ inmates.
• HMP Bristol – reported as one of the most unsafe prisons in the country and 46 per cent of prisoners said it was easy to get drugs in the prison.
• HMP Bedford – reported to have the highest rate of violence against staff in the adult male prison estate. Taylor described the conditions as “some of the worst he has seen” and a “damning indictment of the state of prisons”.
• HMP Woodhill – severe staff shortages meant men were locked inside their cells for more than 21 hours a day and 853 incidents of self-harm were recorded between November 2022 and November 2023.

Action points. The Labour government must now decide on measures to manage the prison population; increase inmates’ ability to engage in purposeful activity which can reduce violence and improve reoffending rates; and address drug use, which has taken over some prisons via drone deliveries and staff corruption.

“Ultimately it’s about building more or reducing numbers – that’s the decision the government has to take,” said Taylor. At lower densities, “it’s much easier to run a successful prison.”

• Labour has already confirmed it will retain the early release scheme, where prisoners nearing the end of their sentence can be released up to 70 days early.
• A new proposal to release low-risk female inmates – which would be almost all of them – could free up entire prisons.
• James Timpson, the new prisons minister, has said previously that only a third of prisoners should be in jail. Given the vulnerability of many prisoners, the lack of rehabilitation available inside and high re-offending rates on release, the Labour government may take radical action to address the demand side of the crisis.

What’s more… it’s not just prisons that are overcrowded. An unannounced inspection carried out in February this year found Harmondsworth immigration removal centre centre near Heathrow was “chaotic”, with those held in state detention “at imminent risk of harm”.