#PrisonCrowding

The current situation, and ways we can fix it

#PrisonCrowding There are too many people in prison in England and Wales.

Brexit is understandably the focus of much of our political and policymaking attention at the moment - but there are other pressing domestic social issues that we can't ignore.

One such issue is prison overcrowding. That there are too many people in our prisons isn't an opinion about how the criminal justice system operates, but a statement of fact: according to the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), there were on average over 20,000 prisoners in crowded accommodation in 2016/17 (a bit under one in four).

This measure of crowding is based on the number of prisoners in cells or dormitories – so it could be two prisoners sharing a cell designed for one, or twelve prisoners in a dormitory meant for ten.

#PrisonCrowding – nearly 3 in 5 of our prisons are crowded.

The proportion of prisons recording some level of crowding – i.e. with a population higher than the In-use Certified Normal Accommodation (ICNA) – has also consistently been above 50% in recent years. Some of these may only be holding a prisoner or two more than they're designed to, but the proportion of prisons with a population of 10% or more above the ICNA has also held steady at about a third.

#PrisonCrowding – Some prisons have held 50% more inmates than they should for six years straight.

Not every prison is crowded. And some prisons slip in and out of 'crowded' status as prisoners are released and admitted, or even as cells are taken out of use (for example if they're damaged). But new analysis of the monthly prison population statistics reveals a hard core of prisons that have been persistently, and badly, crowded.

#PrisonCrowding - why does this matter, and what can we do?

Source: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4450/37895174822_7f6d13df20_b.jpg

#PrisonCrowding has been linked to riots, suicides, and poorer rehabilitation

The CAN represents "the good, decent standard of accommodation that the [Prison] Service aspires to provide all prisoners". But it's not just a failure to meet that ambition that matters: crowding can affect a wide range of outcomes in our prison system, during and after custody:

- Overcrowding has been cited as a contributing factor in riots, as well as making them harder for prison staff to control;

- In 2014 the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman also raised it as a possible contributor to increased suicides among inmates; and

- The Justice Select Committee has raised concerns that overcrowding can make rehabilitation more difficult.

#PrisonCrowding has no silver bullet – we need a series of measures

The prison estate is complex. Different prisons can accommodate different types of prisoner, so it's not easy to just move people around. (Even if it were, we'd be about 10,000 CNA places short for the current population.)

So solving it isn't easy. But as you might expect someone working for a policy and economics consultancy to say, it comes down to supply and demand: we have a high demand for suitable prison places relative to their supply.

#PrisonCrowding – there are ways we could reduce the number of prisoners

Both the Prisons Minister and Secretary of State for Justice have recently suggested that for less serious offences, prison should be a last resort.

This could not only ease the crowding problem, but could also reduce reoffending: figures show that nearly two-thirds of prisoners who served sentences of less than 12 months reoffended within a year, compared to consistently lower rates for other sentence lengths.

If it's the sentences that lead to the reoffending, we could reduce the demand for prison places in the long-term as well, as fewer people convicted of crimes would go on to offend again.

Another major group of prisoners are those on remand – either awaiting trial, or awaiting sentencing after being convicted. There are about 9,000 of these, two-thirds of whom have yet to face trial. Reducing the wait for a trial or a sentence, or finding other ways to accommodate these prisoners, would mean those found not guilty or given non-custodial sentences are removed from the prison population sooner. That's good for prisons, and for the individuals – many of whom are, after all, innocent in the eyes of the law.

#PrisonCrowding – But these measures alone won't solve the crisis.

Even if all the prisoners in these groups were taken out of the prison population, we would still have a crowding problem. And in practice we're likely to reduce, rather than end, the numbers of prisoners in these groups.

Other options could include addressing 'sentence inflation' – and of course, measures that succeed in reducing crime would reduce the pressure on the system. Or we could increase the supply of prison places by building or expanding prisons – and Government intends to provide 10,000 modern prison places by 2020, although these might be offset in part by closure of older facilities.

#PrisonCrowding – Reform may be a hard sell, but it's vitally important

We expect a lot from our prisons. We want them to keep us safe by removing criminals from wider society, rehabilitate those prisoners for when they're released, while also respecting those criminals’ human rights.

Overcrowded prisons make all of these tasks more difficult. The action and rhetoric of the current government is promising, but taking the range of actions needed to tackle crowding will need bold politicians willing to make the (several) cases for reform over a long timespan.

But the alternative – leaving tens of thousands of prisoners in crowded facilities – can’t be allowed to continue. It’s not good for prison staff, prisoners, or wider society, and it’s time we did something about it.