August 13, 2005: Prisons Breach Safe Limits, Says PRT

The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) has stated that overcrowding is forcing the Prison Service to risk good order, security and proper running of prisons. This summer, over half of the prisons in England and Wales are officially overcrowded according to Home Office figures. There are now over 10,000 more people in the prison system that it is designed for. 74 out of 142 jails are over the Prison Service’s Certified Normal Accommodation: “the good, decent standard of accommodation that the Service aspires to provide all prisoners”. Worse still, 15 prisons were full beyond even their safe overcrowding limit in July.

PRT director Juliet Lyon commented:

“This level of overcrowding poses a real and serious danger to prison and public safety.”

The PRT notes that conditions are deteriorating. Prisons are short-staffed, and opportunities for constructive activity are very limited. People are being moved from one overcrowded prison to another. Over 17,000 prisoners are now held two to a cell built for one. They do not have to have separately ventilated lavatories – meaning more than one person must eat, sleep and defecate in the same small room.

Since the beginning of June, there have been 26 apparent self-inflicted deaths in custody. Of these, 24 have occurred in overcrowded prisons. Juliet Lyon stated:

“The terrible correlation between overcrowding and deaths in custody demands urgent investigation.”

The total number of prisoners that a jail can fit in, allowing for a safe level of overcrowding, is known as its ‘operational capacity’. In July 2004, the Home Office minister Paul Goggins was asked in parliament about overcrowded prisons. He commented then: “All those prisons are within their operating capacity, which is the total number of prisoners that an establishment can hold, taking into account control, security and the proper operation of the planned regime.”

Just one year on, this is no longer true. Fifteen prisons across England and Wales have been forced beyond their overcrowding limit: they are Altcourse, Brixton, Bullingdon, Camp Hill, Chelmsford, Coldingley, Forest Bank, Gartree, Highdown, Lancaster Farms, Lowdham Grange, Wandsworth, Woodhill, Wormwood Scrubs, and Wymott.

Juliet Lyon said:

“The government have grown complacent about overcrowding and now is breaching its own final buffer. The summer holiday season usually gives prisons a respite while the courts take their break, instead the population is growing month on month. Even in the quietest months of the year, pressure is still building up within prisons.”

“Massive prison growth will not end of its own accord. It will take a concerted effort to reserve prison for serious and violent offenders and to invest in drug treatment, mental healthcare and safe, effective alternatives to custody. Right now, the prison population is mushrooming out of control, and the government is still trying hopelessly to build its way out of a crisis.”