Two-thirds of prisons officially overcrowded
As it publishes the list of the top 20 most overcrowded jails in England and Wales, the Prison Reform Trust warns that the human and financial cost of prison growth and overcrowding is now too great to bear.
This summer almost two thirds of the prisons in England and Wales are officially overcrowded according to Ministry of Justice figures just released. There are now over 10,000 more people in the prison system than it is designed to hold. 87 out of 142 jails are over the Prison Service’s Certified Normal Accommodation: “the good, decent standard of accommodation that the Service aspires to provide all prisoners”. Worse still, 15 prisons were full beyond even their safe overcrowding limit in July.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:
In an economic downturn it defies belief that billions of pounds should be spent locking up more and more people only to turn them out of jail homeless, jobless and ready to offend again.
Ministers have grown complacent about jail overcrowding. Massive prison growth will not end of its own accord. It will take a concerted effort across government to reserve prison for those who have committed serious and violent crimes and to invest in drug treatment for addicts, mental health and social care and enforced community work for petty offenders. Right now, the prison population is mushrooming out of control, and the government is still trying hopelessly to build its way out of a crisis.
Overcrowding is forcing the Prison Service to risk good order, security and proper running of prisons around the country. The total number of prisoners that a jail can fit in, allowing for a safe level of overcrowding, is called its ‘operational capacity’. In July fifteen prisons across England and Wales were pushed beyond their overcrowding limit, jeopardising, control, security and the planned regime.
The summer holiday season usually gives prisons a respite while the courts take their break, instead the population is growing month on month. While the number of people appearing before the courts, and the charges made, have remained much the same over the last few years, use of custody and length of sentence have increased markedly.
Even in the quietest months of the year, pressure is still building up within prisons. Figures just published reveal that in July, under Operation Safeguard, 145 police and court cells were pressed into use to house overspill prisoners despite strong criticisms of their suitability and safety voiced by the Chief Inspector of Prisons and the Prison Governors Association and political embarrassment about the vast expense incurred.
Prison conditions are deteriorating. Prisons are short-staffed. Opportunities for constructive activity have just been reduced following budget cutbacks. In a process officials refer to as ‘the churn’ people are being moved from one overcrowded prison to another damaging work on rehabilitation and resettlement. The distance prisoners are held from home has increased markedly reducing prison visits and the family support known to reduce reoffending on release. Over 17,000 prisoners are now held two to a cell built for one. They do not have to have separately ventilated lavatories – meaning more than one person must eat, sleep and defecate in the same small room.
Overcrowded jails are not working to prevent reoffending. Reconviction rates are running at an average of two in three prisoners reconvicted within two years of release. Rates are lower for those convicted of serious and violent crimes and serving a sentence of one year or more. For people serving short sentences for petty crimes reconviction rates rise sharply. Three quarters of all young prisoners under 20 are reconvicted within two years of release, bearing out what many fear – that prison acts as a university of crime for the young.
Commenting Lucie Russell, director of SmartJustice said:
There is nothing smart about stacking up prisoners in overcrowded jails. It leads to more, not less, offending on release. It is not tough on crime, it is tough on the rest of us.
Notes:
Overcrowding figures extracted from NOMS (2008) Monthly Bulletin, July 2008, London: Prison Service
The Prison population on I August was 83,810. A year earlier it was 80,319 – a rise of 3,491. Source: National Offender Management Service, Prison Population & Accommodation Briefing for 1 August 2008.
Ten years ago the average prison population in England and Wales was 65,298.
Certified normal prison accommodation in use in July was 73,618, leaving the prison service to find space for a further 10,192 people.
The 16 prisons over their operational capacity on 25 July are: Bedford, Belmarsh, Brixton, Cardiff, Elmley, Forest Bank, Gartree, Hewell, Highdown, Holme House, Lowdham Grange, Swansea, Wandsworth, Winchester, Woodhill.
A further five jails reached, but did not exceed, the top limit of their operational capacity.
The prison capacity is outlined in Prison Service Order 1900, Certified Prisoner Accommodation. It says: Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA), or uncrowded capacity, is the Prison Service’s own measure of accommodation. CNA represents the good, decent standard of accommodation that the Service aspires to provide all prisoners.
Prison Service Order 1900 also says: ‘Any prisoner places provided above CNA are referred to as overcrowding places. Any cell or establishment with an occupancy/population above CNA is referred to as crowded (or overcrowded).’
Operational capacity is the total number of prisoners that an establishment can hold without serious risk to good order, security and the proper running of the planned regime. It is determined and approved by Area Managers using operational judgement and their knowledge of establishment regime and infrastructure.
As a result of the ongoing crisis, establishments can exceed operational capacity under this National Offender Management Service directive: ‘Governing governors and Controllers and Directors of contracted out prisons must ensure that the approved operational capacity is not normally exceeded other than on an exceptional basis to accommodate pressing operational need.’
According to the government, the overall cost of the criminal justice system has risen from 2% of GDP to 2.5% over the last ten years. That is a higher per capita level than the US or any EU country.1
Total prisons expenditure has increased from £2.843bn in 1995 to £4.325bn in 2006 (all at 2006 prices).2
Since Labour came to power in 1997, more than 20,000 additional prison places have been provided, an increase of 33%. 19,500 more are planned for 2014.3
The average cost of each prison place built between 2000 and 2004 is £99,839.4
Prison has a poor record for reducing reoffending – 64.7% are reconvicted within two years of being released -for young men (18-20) it is 75.3%.5
England and Wales has the highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe at 147 per 100,000 of the population. France has an imprisonment rate of 91 per 100,000 and Germany has a rate of 95 per 100,000.6
In France, with the same population, prison numbers are 56,279 and in Germany with over 20 million more people, 75,719.7
A new building programme will take the rate of imprisonment in England and Wales to 178 per 100,000 of population. That is beyond Bulgaria (148), Slovakia (155), Romania (155) and Hungary (156).8
1 Rt Hon Lord Faulkner, the Today Programme, BBC Radio 4, 23 January 2007
2 Lord Carter’s Review of Prisons, Securing the Future, December 2007
3 Jack Straw, Oral statement to the House of Commons, http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/announcement_051207a.htm
4 Hansard, House of Commons written answers, 30 June 2005
5 Home Office, Re-offending of adults: results from the 2004 cohort
6 International Centre for Prison Studies, http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/law/research/icps
7 International Centre for Prison Studies, http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/law/research/icps
8 Ibid.
