THE PRISON CRISIS

There are now more prisoners in England and Wales than the prison estate can
accommodate. The prison population stands at 81,454 (NOMS, Prison Population &
Accommodation Briefing, 23 November 2007). Total capacity within the prison estate stands at
81,367.

As a result 197 prisoners are currently housed in police cells under Operation Safeguard.
The average nightly cost of holding a prisoner in a police cell is £385 (Hansard, 25 June 2007,
Col. 354W) – more than a Superior King room at the Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly. The total cost of
Operation Safeguard since October 2006 has been £28.7million (Hansard, 20 November 2007,
Col. 727W) – enough to build a prison for over 250 prisoners (based on an average cost of
£110,000 per place confirmed by Jack Straw; speech to the Prison Governors Association,
Buxton, 8 October 2007).

Even if police cells are included, there is only room to accommodate 313 more prisoners.

The Government has

Prison population as proportion of prison capacity pledged to build 9,500 new
prison places by 2012.
(Home Office, 21 July 2006;
101.000%
Lords Hansard, 19 June
2007, Col. 97). However,
100.000% the Ministry of Justice
predicts that the prison
99.000%
population will rise by
11,268 by the middle of
98.000%
2012, and possibly by up to
15,568 (NOMS, Prison
97.000%
Population Projections,
2007-2014, 31 August
96.000%
2007).
95.000%
As many as 1,160 places
built in 2002-04 are in
94.000%
temporary units with a life
06/01/2006

06/03/2006

06/05/2006

06/07/2006

06/09/2006

06/11/2006

06/01/2007

06/03/2007

06/05/2007

06/07/2007

06/09/2007

06/11/2007

expectancy of between five

and ten years, while HMP
Kennet, in Merseyside, a
new 350 place prison
opened in February 2007,
Figure 1: Prison population as proportion of capacity within prison
is only on a five year lease
estate (Source: HM Prison Service/NOMS Weekly Population Bulletin,
6 Jan 2006 - 23 November 2007) and may shut in 2012.

The Government has admitted that funding is in place for only 500 of the new places announced
in 2007 (Hansard, 22 November 2007, Col. 1103W).

There could be a shortfall of over 3000 prison places within five years.
The extent of overcrowding

Over half of prisons are overcrowded. 92 of the 141 prisons in England and Wales currently
hold more prisoners than their in-use certified normal accommodation (NOMS, Prison population
Monthly Briefing, 31 October 2007). Fourteen prisons are holding 50 per cent more prisoners
than they are certified to take (NOMS, Prison population Monthly Briefing, 31 October 2007).

73 per cent of
PRISON Accommodation Operational Population Overcrowding
prisoners are
Available Capacity
housed in
overcrowded
accommodation Shrewsbury 181 340 329 182%
(NOMS, Prison Swansea 240 422 423 176%
Population Monthly Preston 429 750 733 171%
Bulletin, 31 October Lincoln 436 738 738 169%
2007). Leicester 206 385 349 169%
Usk 150 250 248 165%
24 prisons are now Altcourse 794 1288 1293 163%
holding more
Durham 591 981 949 161%
prisoner than their
Northallerton 153 252 245 160%
operational
capacity, defined as Dorchester 147 260 226 154%
‘the total number of Wandsworth 965 1475 1485 154%
prisoners that an Exeter 316 533 484 153%
establishment can Reading 182 287 279 153%
hold taking into Leeds 678 1000 1025 151%
account control, Table 1: The fourteen most overcrowded prisons (Source: NOMS, Prison
security and the Population Monthly Bulletin, October 2007; excludes HMP Kennet)
proper operation of
the planned regime’ (NOMS, Prison Population Monthly Bulletin, 31 October 2007).

The effects of overcrowding

Overcrowding linked to suicide. In July, Ann Owers, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, linked
overcrowding with prison suicides (http://www.guardian.co.uk/prisons/story/0,,2124651,00.html),
which have risen from 68 in the whole of 2006 to 81 in 2007 so far. Eighty-four per cent of prison
suicides occur in overcrowded prisons (Hansard, 8 October 2007, Col. 204W). Prisoners in
overcrowded prisons are twice as likely as other prisoners to take their own lives, suggesting that
up to 42 per cent of prison suicides could be avoided if prisons were not overcrowded.

Overcrowding linked to prison violence. In January, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Ann
Owers, claimed that some jails had become ‘riskier places to manage’ because of overcrowding
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6311629.stm). Between 2002 and 2006, the number of
assaults on prisoner officers rose 24 per cent to 3,123. The number of prisoner on prisoner
assaults rose 32 per cent to 11,520. (Hansard, 30 October 2007, Col. 1150W). Between 1997
and 2007, the prison population rose by a third (Home Office Research and Statistics Directorate,
‘The Prison Population in 1997: A Statistical Review’; NOMS, Prison Population Weekly Bulletin,
23 November 2007).

Between 1997 and 2007, the number of prison officers rose by only 18 per cent from 23,058 to
27,222 (Hansard, 10 September 2007, Col. 1998W). This means that the average number of
prisoners guarded by each officer has risen from 2.6 to 3, exposing both individual officers and
the prison system to greater risk.
Overcrowding linked to re-offending. In January, the Chief Inspector of Prisons said that
overcrowding was undermining attempts at rehabilitation
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6311629.stm):
‘local prisons continue to be at the sharp end of overcrowding pressure … they are least
likely to be able to provide opportunities for rehabilitation and activity; and are now even
less able to move prisoners to places that can provide them’. (HM Chief Inspector of
Prisons, Annual Report 2005/06)
In 2005, the National Audit Office found that overcrowding disrupts work to prevent re-offending
(NAO, National Offender Management Service: Dealing with increased numbers in custody,
2005).

The cost of re-offending. In 2002 Tony Blair’s Social Exclusion Unit estimated the cost to the
criminal justice system of dealing with the recorded crimes committed by ex-prisoners as at least
£11 billion per year (Social Exclusion Unit, 2002). As re-offending rates have since risen, the cost
today is likely to be even higher.

However, on the basis that crime committed by ex-offenders costs £11 billion per year, reducing
re-offending from the current rate of 64.8 per cent for adults released from prison in 2004 (Home
Office, Re-offending by Adults: Results from the 2004 cohort, March 2007) to the level of re-
offending by prisoners released in 1998 - at the start of this Government - 56.8 per cent, re-
offending by ex-prisoners would reduce by 12.4 per cent. This could create a saving of around
£1.36 billion every year for the criminal justice system, in addition to the wider benefits for society
from reduced crime.

More importantly, since re-offenders are, other things being equal, more likely to receive a
custodial sentence for a particular crime, breaking the cycle of re-offending would result in fewer
criminals being returned to prison for new crimes, and ease future pressure on prisons.

The causes of overcrowding

Overcrowding is not down to large Prison population by sentence

numbers of prisoners serving short
sentences. Over 87.5 per cent of
sentenced prisoners are serving
sentences of over twelve months 6 months or less,
(including indeterminate sentences) 8.40%
Indeterminate
(Ministry of Justice, Population in sentences, 15% Over 6 months, up
Custody, September 2007). to 12 months,
4.00%
Only 8.4 per cent of prisoners are
serving sentences of six months or
less – the maximum custodial
sentence in magistrates’ courts. Over 12 months, up
Over four years, to 4 years, 34.50%
However, these short prison
sentences represent the majority of determinate
offenders sentenced. Reducing the sentences, 38%
number of short-term prisoners (those
serving less than six months) further
would mean weakening 23,000
sentences – or 63 per cent of all
custodial sentences (Home Office,
Sentencing Statistics 2005, 2007). Figure 2: Prison population by length of sentence (Source:
Ministry of Justice, Population in Custody, September 2007)
Overcrowding is not caused
by large numbers of first time Pe rs ons s e nte nce d by num be r of pre vious
offenders. Only 12 per cent of offe nce s
those sentenced to prison have
no previous convictions. Over First time
10 or more
half of those sentenced have previous of f enders,
five or more previous of f ences, 12%
convictions (Home Office, 37%
Sentencing Statistics 2005,
March 2007).

Since 2000, the proportion of

people coming before
magistrates for the first time has 1-4 previous
fallen by a tenth. The number of f ences,
31%
coming before magistrates with
more than ten previous
convictions has increased by 36
per cent (Home Office,
Sentencing Statistics 2005, 5-9 previous
March 2007). of f ences,
20%

Figure 3: Offenders sentenced by number of previous offences

(Source: Home Office, Sentencing Statistics 2005)

Overcrowding is not caused by a rise in the number of people receiving custodial

sentences. The total number of people receiving custodial (and community punishments)
dropped between 2004 and 2005. These sentences only increased as a proportion of disposals
because minor offences attracting fines – such as low-level anti-social behaviour – are
increasingly dealt with by non-judicial fixed penalty notices.

Sentences by disposal type

1800000
1600000
1400000
1200000
1000000
800000
600000
400000
200000
0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Other Fines Community sentences Immediate custody

Figure 4: Offenders sentenced by type of disposal (Source: Home Office, Sentencing

Statistics 2005, 2007)
Overcrowding is not caused by increasing numbers of women prisoners. Women prisoners
represent only 5.6 per cent of the prison population (NOMS, Prison Population Bulletin, 23
November 2007) – but prisons are currently overcrowded by 13 per cent (NOMS, Prison
Population Monthly Bulletin, 31 October 2007). Indeed, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons found
women prisoners to be ‘the only part of the prison population that remains stable’ (HM Chief
Inspector of Prisons, Annual Report, 2005/06, p. 5). She also found that women’s prisons have
been a casualty of the prisons crisis, ‘with women’s prisons being rerolled to hold men,
destabilising often vulnerable women and leaving many further from home’ (ibid, p. 6).

Overcrowding is not caused by the introduction of Indeterminate Sentences for Public

Protection. The Prison Reform Trust has said ‘the reason [that the prison population continues to
surge] is very simple … Prison is now being used increasingly not as a place of measured
punishment but as a place of containment for public safety’ (Prison Reform Trust, Indefinitely
Maybe, July 2007). As of 30 April 2007, 2,405 offenders were being held on IPPs (Hansard, 21
May 2007, Col. 1149W). The Ministry of Justice predicts that in 2010 the number of prisoners
held on IPPs will exceed the number of lifers.

However, those prisoners who receive IPPs would otherwise have received determinate
sentences resulting in the same prison time as the minimum tariff received under the IPP. This
means they would have received a sentence of double the IPP tariff they received. It is also
possible that in the case of some particularly dangerous criminals, whose crimes could attract a
discretionary life sentence, and who posed a strong danger of re-offending, but where the offence
committed itself may not on its own have justified a life sentence, judges might now use an IPP in
place of a discretionary life sentence.

A review of indeterminate sentence tariffs in the first year of IPPs revealed that over 75 per cent
of those receiving an IPP had received a minimum tariff equivalent to a fixed term sentence of
three years or more (Hansard, 17 July 2007, Col. 272W).

Even the Prison Reform Trust’s own case studies suggest that the fact that a short tariff is given
does not mean that an offender is not dangerous. They cite only two examples of short tariffs,
one of six months, one of eighteen months – but both were cases of arson. The judge in one of
those cases made it clear why he believed an indeterminate sentence was necessary: he said the
offences the person had committed ‘did no more than cause repeated damage and disruption.
However, if you were to do something like that in a hostel, a house or a block of flats you could
cause great injury. In fact, you could cause loss of life’ (Prison Reform Trust, Indefinitely Maybe,
July 2007).

On 8 October 2007, the Justice Secretary indicated that there were now ‘almost 400’ tariff-expired
IPP prisoners. It follows, therefore, that tariff expired IPP prisoners account for less than 0.5 per
cent of the prison population, and no more than 2 per cent of the increase in prison population
since 1997.

Justice Secretary admits that the increased pressure on the prison system is being driven
by people who should be in prison. In a speech to the Prison Governors Association in
October, Jack Straw claimed that the reason the prison population is expanding is that:
‘More offences are being brought to justice’
‘Enforcement of breaches of community orders and breaches of licence has improved
considerably’
‘There are now 60 per cent more violent and serious offenders in prison than in 1997,
representing the bulk of the additional prisoners’
(Jack Straw, Prison Governors Association conference, Brighton, October 2007).
LABOUR – GIVING CRIMINALS A BREAK
Early Release
Since Gordon Brown came
to power, at least 8,520
prisoners have been Violence
released early on ‘End of Offence not against the
recorded, 163
Custody Licence’ (ECL) person, 1,544
(Ministry of Justice, ‘End of Other offences, Sexual
Custody Licence’, data up 2,262 Offences, 2
to 30 September 2007).
Robbery, 176

As of 30 September 2007,
Burglary, 811
1,544 people convicted of
violence against the person
had been released (Ministry Motoring
of Justice, ‘End of Custody offences, 1,093
Licence’, monthly, data up
Drug offences, Theft and
to 31 September 2007).
355 Handling, 1,947
Those offenders have Fraud and
committed at least 120 Forgery, 167
crimes while on early
release (Ministry of Justice,
‘End of Custody Licence’, Figure 5: Releases on ECL by offence type, 29 June 2007 to 30 September
31 October 2007). 2007 (Source: Ministry of Justice, End of Custody Licence, monthly)

Despite the introduction of early release, the prisons have filled up again within four months.

83000

82000

81000

80000

79000 Introduction of
78000 early release

77000

76000

75000

74000
06/01/2006
06/02/2006
06/03/2006
06/04/2006
06/05/2006
06/06/2006

06/07/2006
06/08/2006

06/09/2006
06/10/2006
06/11/2006
06/12/2006
06/01/2007

06/02/2007
06/03/2007
06/04/2007
06/05/2007

06/06/2007
06/07/2007
06/08/2007

06/09/2007

06/10/2007
06/11/2007

Prison Population Prison Capacity including police cells

Figure 6: Prison population and capacity (Source: HM Prison Service/NOMS Weekly Population
Bulletin, 6 Jan 2006 - 23 November 2007)
Judges and magistrates to be stripped of sentencing powers
Labour is planning to stop judges from imposing open-ended sentences and restrict them
to giving 'extended' sentences instead. Legislation has already been prepared for Northern
Ireland to implement the new rules on indeterminate sentences (Draft Criminal Justice (Northern
Ireland) Order 2007, article 4(3)). Under this legislation judges would only be able to give an
indeterminate sentence where the offence would have carried a fixed term sentence of four or
more years. Otherwise, judges will only be able to impose an ‘extended sentence’, under which
prisoners are automatically released even if they pose a ‘significant risk’ of causing ‘death or
serious injury’ by re-offending.

Magistrates will also no longer be allowed to give suspended prison sentences to criminals
they fear might re-offend or break the terms of their probation (Criminal Justice and Immigration
Bill, s. 10). The Magistrates Association has said ‘We see no logical reason for this proposal…
We believe this proposal may be driven by the current state of overcrowding in prisons’
(Magistrates Association, briefing on the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, September 2007).

One magistrate has pointed out that this change will limit magistrates’ options for dealing with
offences including domestic violence:
‘How are we supposed to sentence the sixth-time driving while disqualified, or the third-
time drink driver? Common Assault is the usual charge in Domestic Violence cases, and
that too is summary-only. Take away the deterrence and what do we have?’ (‘The
Magistrate’s Blog, thelawwestofealingbroadway.blogspot.com).

In addition, where prisoners on licence break the terms of their parole, they will only be returned
to prison for 28 days – a move described by the Magistrates Association as ‘a licence to reoffend’
(Magistrates Association, Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, September 2007).

And courts’ ability to give custodial sentences will be limited by Jack Straw's plan to
punish criminals who currently receive a prison sentence of 12 months or less with
community service instead. (Jack Straw, speech to the Howard League, 21 November 2007).
Straw told the Howard League that ‘For prisoners sentenced to under twelve months …
community sentences will, in many cases, be a better alternative’. But Ministers last week
indicated that numbers of probation staff available to supervise offenders serving community
sentences will fall due to financial constraints (David Hanson, speech to the National Probation
Service, 21 November 2007).

The number of prison places available to dictate sentences

Available prison capacity to dictate prisoners' sentences. Jack Straw has agreed that ‘some
method must be found of linking resources to the setting of the sentencing framework’ (Jack
Straw, speech to the Howard League, 21 November 2007). What that means is when our prisons
are full - as they are now - some offenders would not get custodial sentences.

This may also lead to offenders in an area where prisons are full receiving a more lenient
sentence than similar offenders in areas where there is spare jail capacity.
PRISONS WITH A PURPOSE
Conservatives have already pledged to:
• double magistrates’ sentencing powers by implementing s. 154 of the Criminal Justice
Act 2003 – this would allow them the option of handing down custodial sentences of up to
twelve months
• introduce honesty in sentencing, ensuring that convicted criminals serve at least the
minimum sentence handed down by the judge.
• scrap early release on end of custody licence by creating 1,200 rapid build prison
places to address the immediate crisis.
• ensure adequate prison capacity
• reform prison regimes to focus on breaking the cycle of re-offending
• ensure adequate provision for the mentally ill and offenders with drugs problems
(Conservative Party, Crime: It’s Time to Fight Back, September 2007)

The Prison Reform Agenda

In July, David Cameron asked the Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert to lead a review of
prisons and sentencing policy. The Prison Reform & Sentencing Review is divided into working
groups across four main themes, each led by a shadow justice minister:

1. Sentencing

The first working group, led by Lord Kingsland, is looking at sentencing. It is developing policies
to restore honesty in sentencing in order to reassure victims – and send a clear message to
criminals. It is exploring ways in which judges could hand down minimum as well as maximum
sentences, with no possibility of parole until the minimum has been served. This group is also
looking at the role, effectiveness and potential of non-custodial and semi-custodial sentences, the
role of restorative justice, and the role of the Sentencing Guidelines Council.

2. Prison capacity and the prison estate

Working in partnership with the sentencing team, the prison capacity and estate working group, is
led by the Shadow Prisons Minister Edward Garnier QC MP. This group is looking into the
management of the national prison estate – how many prison places we are going to need, where
they should be, and how we will plan for them. It is considering issues of prison redevelopment
and redesign with a focus on international examples of best practice.

3. Prison Regimes and Rehabilitation

The third working group, led by David Burrowes MP, is looking at ways to reform how prisons
are run, with a far greater emphasis on education, training and work to reduce reconviction rates.
It is considering the most effective prison regimes and rehabilitative programmes for reducing re-
offending – gained from international experience. It is examining the role of community, faith and
voluntary organisations within the prison system and investigating the quality and scope of drug,
alcohol and mental health provision in custody.

4. Life After Prison – Supervision and Resettlement

Henry Bellingham MP is leading the fourth working group looking at life after prison. It is
analyzing ways to improve the support networks for released offenders, enhancing their ability to
choose to lead productive lives after release. It is also covering the issues of probation and post-
release supervision and will be recommending ways to improve the monitoring of all, especially
dangerous, offenders.