Prison population reaches record high in England and Wales

The prison population in England and Wales has reached a record high, just days before the government’s temporary early release scheme comes into force.

According to figures released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on Friday, the number of inmates has risen by 1,159 since 2 August, the week when the UK riots began, and now stands at 88,521.

This is the highest level since weekly population data was first published in 2011.

Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle said the MoJ is “considering anything” to “alleviate the problem” of overcrowding.

Speaking to broadcasters on Friday, Dame Angela said: “The last government closed loads of prison places and didn’t replace any of them.

“What we cannot have is people who are convicted of perhaps violent or serious crimes not being able to be in jail.”
The government’s temporary early release scheme is due to launch on 10 September.

It will see about 3,000 prisoners in England and Wales released early from jail.

The policy will not apply to those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse or some violent offences.
Former chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick told the BBC’s Today programme the early release policy will “remove the immediate pressure”.

“I don’t think the government had any alternative in the short-term other than to do these releases,” he said.

“But it’s a bit like squeezing a balloon – you release the pressure in one place but the bulge goes somewhere else – and the real problem now is, first of all, some of those released will re-offend for certain, and some of those released, a lot of those released, I fear will end up homeless because there simply isn’t the accommodation for them.”

As part of this scheme, HMP Pentonville in north London – which the BBC recently gained access to – is releasing 16 people next week. At the time of the visit, the jail was close to capacity and has just nine beds free.

Built in 1842, the men’s prison was originally designed to hold 520 people in single cells. Now, with two prisoners per cell, it has an operational capacity of 1,205.

Following reports that ministers were considering renting jail cells outside of the UK to ease the overcrowding problem, Downing Street said on Friday that it had made “no plans or announcements” regarding sending prisoners to serve their sentences in Estonia.

The idea was reportedly raised by the Estonian government with Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood when she met her counterpart, Liisa Pakosta, in Lithuania earlier this week.

However, a UK government spokeswoman said: “On those reports specifically, I would point out that this was the policy of the former government and that this government has made no such plans or announcements with regard to Estonia.”

The government declined to comment on any private conversations between Ms Mahmood and Ms Pakosta at a recent Council of Europe meeting they both attended.

It said it would be publishing a 10-year strategy in the autumn to set out “how we will ensure that we always have the places we need to keep dangerous offenders behind bars”.

In July, Ms Mahmood announced plans to cut the proportion of sentences inmates must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%.

She said overcrowding had pushed jails to the “point of collapse”.