At the last count, two weeks ago, there were almost 86,500 people in prison in England and Wales. That’s about 5,000 more than even the Ministry of Justice accepts can be held safely on the prison estate. But that’s not a new story – prisons have been full for years now.
They were full when David Cameron was prime minister. They were full under Boris Johnson – and Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. And when Keir Starmer became prime minister, he inherited a system about to collapse – unless he carried on with Conservative plans to release some prisoners early. But that was only a temporary fix, and before he stepped down Starmer pushed through a law that would release another 5,000 prisoners early, from 1 September, with some to be freed after serving just a third of their sentence.
When Andy Burnham arrived in No 10 last month, the thorny problem of early release was top of his in-tray. He has vowed to use his power to block certain criminals from the scheme and has postponed early release until October. But why are our prisons so full, and what can be done to free up space? Judith Feline, a former prison governor, explains why overcrowding has increased, while senior political correspondent Peter Walker tells Helen Pidd why the prospect of releasing prisoners early has caused Burnham such a headache.
