The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies have welcomed a devastating critique of government prisons policy by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.
The report – Prison estate capacity – out today, offers a forensic demolition job on failed government attempts to build their way out of recurring prison crises.
The justice system, the Committee concludes, “faces total gridlock in 2026”, with rising prisoner numbers outstripping anticipated prison capacity.
The Labour government, the Committee argues, has inherited “completely unrealistic” prison-building plans from the former Conservative government. But rather than learn from previous mistakes, the Labour government is embarking on its own prison-building plans, which are “fraught with risk and uncertainty”. This leaves the prison service relying on “uncertain future demand reduction measures, which it hopes will come from the independent Sentencing Review, to prevent it from running out of places. It is also assuming it can introduce any required legislative changes very quickly.”
The Committee also highlights the ongoing neglect of basic prison maintenance and repairs, which has left far too many prison cells in a dangerous state and made prisons unpleasant and unhealthy places to be for both prisoners and staff.
Speaking today, the Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Richard Garside, said:
I very much welcome this report, though I doubt the government does. When it comes to bad policies, poorly implemented, there is nothing that beats the disinfectant of sunlight.
Successive governments have tried, and failed, to build their way out of prisons capacity crises created by bad legislation and poor decisions by ministers. This report offers a number of practical suggestions to resolve the current prisons crisis. It does, though, require ministers to listen and act, rather than just carrying on regardless.
Rather than repeating all the mistakes of the past, the government should develop a long-term plan to contain and then reduce the prison population. This would allow it to close the gap between the money allocated and the costs of building, running and maintaining prisons.
Such a plan would need to be supported by legislative, spending and policy changes, undertaken on a cross-departmental, and cross-party, basis.
Our comments were picked up by The Independent: ‘Prisons set to run out of spaces again within a year despite early release scheme, MPs warn’
