Justice Secretary response to Anne Owers's 'Independent Review of Prison Capacity'

Following the publication of Anne Owers's ‘Independent Review of Prison Capacity', published today (Tuesday 5^th August), the Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said:

“This report lays bare the disgraceful way the last Conservative Government ran our prisons. They added less than 500 cells to the prison estate over fourteen years, released over 10,000 prisoners early under a veil of secrecy, and brought our jails close to total collapse on countless occasions.prisons 

“This Government is fixing our prisons, for good. Days after taking office, we took the emergency action required to stop our prisons from collapsing. We have already opened 2,400 new cells since coming into office, on track for 14,000 by 2031. And we are reforming sentencing to ensure we can always lock up dangerous offenders and keep the public safe."

Anne Owers's report includes a series of revelations about the gross mismanagement of the prisons system under the last Conservative Government, including:

Emergency preparation for early releases under the Civil Contingencies Act, conducted by the last Government during the General Election campaign: 

• “In May 2024, following the announcement of a general election, a cross-government, official-level COBR meeting was convened to discuss invoking emergency powers under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 to release prisoners early. This might be necessary to avert the risk of public disorder if the criminal justice system collapsed during the election campaign because prisons were unable to take in any more prisoners.” (p3)

Senior officials preparing for an expected inquiry into the mismanagement of prisons

• “Senior officials were so concerned about a potential breakdown in the criminal justice system that an audit was kept of all decision-making and documents, in case there was a public or parliamentary inquiry.” (p3)

The Conservative Government consistently waiting only until prisons were days from collapsing before acting – to the dismay of Ministers in that Government

• “Although departmental ministers were convinced by mid-2023 that some form of early release was both necessary and urgent, this required Prime Ministerial agreement, which was not forthcoming until the system was within three days of potential collapse, and only in incremental stages” (p15)
• “Former ministers expressed to me their frustration about poor communication with the centre of government, the lack of credible plans, and an extreme reluctance to take action. For example, from mid-2023, the then Lord Chancellor has made clear that he was advocating, without success, a version of the SDS early release scheme in order to get ahead of the crisis, rather than the minimal salami-slicing approach that was eventually taken. Without exception, all those the review spoke to expressed frustration and sometimes anger at the reluctance to accept and then act on the well-documented and imminent crisis, or to agree any coherent plan to avert it. In spite of the layers of assurance, arguments and evidence had to be repeated and rehashed, options already long-discussed and proven to be undeliverable had to be resurrected and re-argued. Many believed that the default position was to do as little as possible as late as possible, with the consequence that the system repeatedly reached the brink of collapse, rather than accepting the inevitable and getting ahead of the crisis.” (p43)
• “From October 2023 to the summer of 2024, there were repeated crises, with the minimum necessary being done to avoid meltdown, at the last possible moment, before the system moved towards the next predictable cliff edge. That was not for the want of other, more durable, solutions being put forward. Officials and then MoJ ministers had been pressing for some time for a formalised and planned way of reducing demand by reducing the custodial period for standard determinate sentences, since it was clear that all supply options had been exhausted.” (p44)

Warnings by senior figures in the criminal justice system about the impending collapse of law and order:

• “In October 2023, the Senior Presiding Judge, knowing that action was finally going to be taken within a few days, was concerned about whether the system could keep going until that point. In one of his regular discussions with resident judges, he therefore suggested that some cases – for example, people out on bail and due to come to court for sentence – might temporarily be deferred (‘delisted') until capacity was made available… The Lady Chief Justice then made it clear to ministers that the judiciary would not take any further mitigating action unless or until the government fixed the underlying problem.” (p14)
• “Similarly, just before Operation Early Dawn was implemented, when capacity was so tight that there was a risk of prisoners not being collected from police stations, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) suggested to chief officers that they should consider postponing any planned non-urgent big operations until Early Dawn came into play, provided that there was no risk to public safety or of losing evidence.” (p15)

Criticisms of the last Conservative Government's early release scheme (ECSL):

• “The use of a power designed to allow individual prisoners to be released on compassionate grounds – for example because of imminent death or compelling family circumstances – to allow routine early release because of a failure to align sentencing and capacity is, on the face of it, as questionable as the use of ROTL powers [between 2007 and 2010] were said to be.” (p15)
• “The constantly shifting release dates under ECSL, brought in at the last minute, created significant pressure and stress for prison staff, and compromised resettlement outcomes for some prisoners” (p16)
• “Big tranches of releases with little notice were the most difficult thing … the criteria kept changing.” (Prison staff) “ECSL was a disaster as people were released without preparation or knowing where to go … some were sent to the wrong probation office 60 or 70 miles away, then breached for being late to appointments and recalled.” (Third sector)” (p17)
• “Most of the people who spoke to the review, in prisons and the third sector, said that SDS40 was preferable to the ECSL schemes, since it gave them time to prepare and was a fixed, not constantly-changing, scheme” (p18)

The hollowing out of the prison service under the Conservative and Coalition Governments:

• “During the austerity measures in the Coalition government between 2010 and 2015, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) offered up savings based on the assumption that the prison population would reduce, but did not take any measures to reverse the inbuilt drivers of population increase. Eighteen expensive, mostly smaller, prisons were closed and only two new prisons were opened; overall prison officer numbers were reduced by 27%, with a significant loss of experienced staff; maintenance and capital budgets were cut or transferred to plug holes in running costs.” (p4)
• “The stock of places has been eroded by a programme of prison closures, and the loss of individual cells and units due to their poor condition. The net effect is that fewer than 500 places have been added to total operational capacity between 2010 and 2024.” (p26)