The Numbers Game: Prisons named and shamed for overcrowding

The Numbers Game: Prisons named and shamed for overcrowding

The Prison Reform Trust publishes its report today naming and shaming the top twenty worst offending prisons for overcrowding. And argues that ministers have become too complacent in relation to prison overcrowding which has a knock on effect of high reoffending levels.

Whilst the Minister of Justice, Jack Straw, is under a statutory obligation to ensure that sufficient accommodation is provided for all prisoners, there is no statutory authority for prison overcrowding. That is, s.14 of the Prison Act 1952 refers to one prisoner per cell and not two and three prisoners sharing a cell. Therefore, in my view, not only is it unlawful for prison overcrowding to take place it is a breach of prisoners human rights to be treated as though they are sardines in a can.

The problem of overcrowding has come about simply because magistrates and judges are sentencing too many offenders to fill too few prison spaces. Delegated legislation, Prison Service Order 1900 - Certified Prisoner Accommodation, has been amended to such a degree that it no longer complies with s.14 of the Prison Act 1952. The PSO claims to allow authority for limited overcrowding in exceptional circumstances for a limited period. However, this short term measure has gone from the exception to the norm.

When widespread abuse becomes the norm then it is time something was done to amend the situation. For example, Hull Prison has Certified Normal Accommodation for 723 prisoners but presently has 1039 prisoners which means that there is a 144% overcrowding. What is particularly shocking about this figure is that Hull is placed as the twentieth most overcrowded prison on the Prison Reform Trust's list of shame.

Viking FM story here.

UPDATE:

Two-thirds of prisons overcrowded says report

Two-thirds of prisons in England and Wales are overcrowded, figures revealed today, with some jails holding hundreds more inmates than they were built for.

Shrewsbury prison is the most overcrowded, at 179 per cent of normal capacity, followed by Swansea and Dorchester.

One of the largest prisons in England and Wales, Wandsworth in south London, is at 150 per cent capacity, with 1,650 inmates in spaces for 1107.

Overall there are 8,865 more prisoners inside the prisons system than it was designed to hold.

A total of 88 out of 140 jails were over their Certified Normal Accommodation level - defined as a providing "decent" standards.