UK prisons are nearly at full capacity - What can be done?

By ITV News Producer Khadija Kothia

With just over 1,400 spaces left for new inmates, prisons across the UK are close to breaking point, new figures reveal.

The total population stood at 87,453 with a “usable operational capacity” of 88,864 on Friday, just one day before newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer highlighted overpopulation in prisons as part of his government’s key issues to tackle.

“We’ve got too many prisoners, not enough prisons,” he said in his first press conference, outlining his main priorities.

In Scotland, more than 500 long-term, non-violent, and non-sexual prisoners were released after serving two-thirds of their sentence.

This came under government plans to tackle overcrowding in Scottish prisons, which are in crisis and at risk of breaching inmates’ human rights, according to a new report published by Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee.

The issue is UK-wide. England and Wales have the highest per-person prison population in Western Europe. Scotland comes a close second.

The highest number of people imprisoned was recorded less than a year ago in October 2023, when the number reached 88,000.

Under the previous administration, the Ministry of Justice was already building six new prisons to create an extra 20,000 places as demand grows for cell spaces, with 6,000 spaces already being created.

Labour has previously said it wants to build more prisons, but whether this programme will continue under the new government remains to be seen.

Is building more prisons the solution?

While the most simple answer may be to build more prisons, increasing the number of sites may not be the best long-term solution.

The number of people given immediate custodial sentences after being convicted fell by 31% from 98,044 to 67,812 between 2012 to 2022, showing that the increased prison population is not a result of more criminals being convicted, figures from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) show.

Why are prisons across the UK at capacity?

An increasing issue affecting overcapacity is that nearly one-fifth (17%) of the prison population is on remand, according to figures published by the Prison Reform Trust.

This means that either they are still awaiting trial and therefore innocent until proven guilty or awaiting sentencing after having been found guilty.

The backlog in the courts means there are many waiting at least months, if not years, to be tried. Around two-fifths of this group are in the first category: not yet found guilty, and 40,424 people were sent to prison before their trial in 2022, an increase of almost 13% compared with 2021.

Inner-city prisons which host a large proportion of remanded individuals due to their proximity to the courts are some of the most overpopulated, says Dr Jenni Ward, Associate Professor of Criminology at Middlesex University and convener of the Prisons Research Group (PRG).

There are alternatives to keeping these individuals in custody, such as allowing them to be remanded in the community as they await trial, while still under strict community supervision such as electronic tagging or having to report to a local police station regularly. Community supervision could significantly reduce prison populations.

The number of people who are recalled to prisons after being released also remains higher than perhaps necessary, Dr Ward told ITV News.

"The tendency to recall is quite risk averse. Missed appointments can trigger a recall, and that recall prison population is, in my view, and many others, far too high."

Under changes introduced in 2015, anyone leaving custody having served two or more days is required to serve a minimum of 12 months under community supervision. This new rule has increased recall.

According to the Prison Reform Trust, 8,357 people serving a sentence of less than 12 months were recalled to prison in 2022.

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Facing cuts to services

Like with many other social services, the prisons budget has experienced significant cuts in recent years, dropping 20% between 2010/11 and 2014/2015.

Frontline prison staff numbers were also cut by over a quarter between 2010-2017. Cuts in the budget and staff numbers have impacted the provision of adequate community supervision, keeping prisoners inside walls even till death, with elderly or dilapidated inmates taking up 10,700 spaces.

Cuts in spending also reduce the level of rehabilitation programmes in prisons, with even “basic levels” of human care not being provided due to staff being too stretched, Dr Ward says.

Overpopulation and staff shortages can have extreme consequences. A prisoner escaped in 2023 from HMP Wandsworth, where an IMB report from the same year painted a bleak picture of conditions at the West London prison, with 1,584 inmates in a building designed for 961.

More recently, a prison officer was charged with misconduct in public office after a video appeared to show her having sex with a prisoner in a cell.

Good conditions inside prisons support re-integration of ex-prisoners back into society and a sufficient level of community supervision can even reduce the level of re-offending.

Will the new government bring any change?

There could be longer-term changes with the new Labour government’s approach to the penal system.

The new Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation, James Timpson described the current system as being “addicted to punishment", suggesting a change to how we view people in prison.

Mr Timpson is also chair of the Prison Reform Trust and 10% of his workforce at Timpson, where he is CEO, are ex-prisoners supported into the workforce.

The prime minister did not disagree with Mr Timpson’s remarks.

“I’ve sat in the back of I don’t know how many criminal courts and watched people processed through the system on an escalator to go into prison,” he told journalists in response to Mr Timpson's comments.

“And I’ve often reflected that many of them could have been taken out of that system earlier if they’d had support, and that is why what we want to do with our youth hubs and on knife crime is really, really important, because I want to reduce crime.”