PRT response to prison population projections
In response to the publication today of the prison population projections, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:
The dramatic fall in the projected prison population pulls the rug from under the case to build 2,500 place Titan prisons. Last year these same projections were cited by ministers as the reason why we need more and bigger prisons; today, they show that sentencing reforms make much of this colossal building programme redundant. In a time of economic downturn and real pressure on public finances, ministers must rethink the wisdom of building giant prisons when they know that tackling the causes of a rising prison population is a more cost-effective way of protecting the public.
Measures such as reforming IPP sentences and tackling the growing problem of recalls to prison for technical breaches of licence now mean officials expect we will need 7,700 fewer prison places in 2014 than previously anticipated – that’s more than the total number of places the government wants to provide by building three Titans. Re-investing the money saved in treatment for addicts, mental health and social care and effective community penalties for petty offenders would further reduce the need to plough scarce public monies into prison expansion.
The development of a sentencing commission to advise government on the impact of new criminal justice legislation, create firmer guidelines for sentencers and provide clear information for the public could end an over-reliance on prison population projections and reduce the risk of costly mistakes.
Notes:
1. The Prison Population Projections 2008-2015 are published today and are available at http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/stats-prison-pop-sep08.pdf
2. The Prison Population Projections 2007-2014 were published in August 2007 and are available at http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/stats-prison-pop-aug07.pdf
3. The Carter Review on prisons, (published 5 December 2007, cited these projections as the basis for concluding that more prison places are needed (pages 16 and 17). Lord Carter’s review used the ‘high’ scenario in the projections as the basis for its analysis (see note on page 17). The Carter Review is available at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/securing-the-future.pdf
4. The 2007 projections estimated the prison population in 2014 to be 101,900. The 2008 projection for 2014 is now 94,200 – a reduction of 7,700.
