Prison governors chief calls for action with jails ‘full to bursting’
JAILS ARE “full to bursting” and the Government must “be brave” and cut the numbers behind bars, the president of the Prison Governors Association will warn on Tuesday.
Andrea Albutt will call on Ministers to reduce the prison population in England and Wales, saying they should not “worry about votes”. In a highly critical assessment, she will describe violence, suicide and self-harm statistics as “the worst we have ever seen” and raise the alarm over staffing levels.
Addressing the association’s annual conference, Ms Albutt will also say 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 Friday the prison population 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 re-offending rates and improving confidence in non-custodial punishments.
Ms Albutt will say: “Currently 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.”
The Government has launched a drive to add 2,500 new frontline officers and, although Ms Albutt will acknowledge that the picture is improving, she will also flag up the “attrition rate” in staffing levels.
She says prisons have seen a year of “concerted indiscipline”.