The Justice Committee has today launched a new inquiry examining
the future prison population and estate capacity. The prison
population is currently projected to increase to 94,400 by March
2025 and a range of 93,100 to 106,300 by March 2027.
As of 8 September 2023, there were 87,128 people in prison:
83,590 in the male estate and 3,538 in the female estate. In
response to the acute increase in the adult male estate last
October, the Government activated Operation Safeguard,
sanctioning the temporary use of up to 400 police cells to hold
people overnight when there is insufficient space. This year, the
Government also started rolling out Rapid Deployment Cells to
manage the demand for prison places.
In its Prisons White Paper Strategy, the Government stated that
20,000 additional prison places would be created by the
mid-2020s: 18,000 prison places (announced in 2020) and 2,000
temporary places. As of 4 July 2023, 5,400 additional places have
been completed. Should the Government deliver its planned
capacity projects on time, there will still potentially be a
shortfall of 2,300 prison places against projected demand by
March 2025.
Chair of the Justice Committee, Sir
said:
“The prison population in England and Wales is rising and is
forecast to increase even further. The temporary use of police
cells serves to highlight the pressing need for the Government to
urgently address prison capacity.
“Overcrowding remains an issue within the prison estate,
particularly in male local prisons and the rise in the prison
population may also aggravate pre-existing issues across the
estate. Concerns have been raised over safety, the condition of
old prison buildings and the lack of staff to safely manage and
rehabilitate offenders.
“This is a timely inquiry and the Justice Committee intends
to take evidence from a wide range of stakeholders to examine the
effectiveness of the Ministry of Justice's current
strategy for safely and effectively managing the prison
population.”
Terms of reference
The Justice Committee invites written submissions
by Friday 20 October
2023 addressing any or all of the following
questions:
- What changes are expected in the
size and composition of the prison population in the short,
medium and long term?
- What is the Ministry of Justice's
current strategy for safely and effectively managing the prison
population, and how effective is it?
- Is the Government’s commitment to
deliver 20,000 prison places by the mid-2020s achievable and
sufficient to manage the projected demand for places?
- To what extent has the activation
of Operation Safeguard and the rolling out of Rapid Deployment
Cells helped to manage capacity pressures?
- What are the implications of the
rise in the prison population for the resources required to
manage prisons safely and effectively?
- What is HM's Prison and Probation
Service's current capacity to manage overcrowding safely and
effectively?
- What is the impact of an ageing
infrastructure and are Victorian prisons fit for purpose?
Further
information:
The new inquiry is available here:
Future prison population
and estate capacity - Committees - UK Parliament
