Jails ‘full to bursting’ – new report
stood at 85,375, which is 1,124 below the “useable operational capacity”.
The level has almost doubled since the early 1990s, and remained around the mid-80,000s mark in recent years.
Ministers have resisted calls for direct measures designed to bring about an immediate cut in the prison population, instead focusing on driving down reoffending rates and improving confidence in non-custodial punishments.
But Ms Albutt argues: “Our prisons are full to bursting. The Government must be brave and reduce the prison population and don’t worry about votes. Don’t dabble, just do it – because morally it is the right thing to do.”
Describing sentences of a year or less as “pointless”, she contends: “This cohort must be dealt with in a different way in the community. Executive Release is possible. We have prisoners on IPP (Imprisonment for Public Protection) sentences years past their tariff but still in prison.”
Jails are holding “old and infirm” inmates who are no longer a danger to society, as well as “far too many mentally ill people where prison is absolutely the worst place for them”. JAILS are “full to bursting” and the Government must “be brave” and cut the numbers behind bars, the president of the Prison Governors Association has warned.
Andrea Albutt is calling on ministers to reduce the prison population in England and Wales, saying they should not “worry about votes”.
In a highly critical assessment, she described violence, suicide and selfharm statistics as “the worst we have ever seen” and raised the alarm over staffing levels. Addressing the association’s annual conference, Ms Albutt said that a safety and reform drive is “led and predominantly run by generalist civil servants with little or no understanding of the very complex nature of prisons and their inhabitants”.
Ms Albutt’s intervention will lead to fresh scrutiny of the politically-charged issue of the prison population. Penal reform campaigners frequently warn that efforts to stabilise the estate will fail unless the number of inmates is reduced. On FriANDREA ALBUTT day, the prison population