Prison numbers reach all-time high

12 April 2012

The Government has been accused of inadequacy and incompetence after announcing that prison numbers for England and Wales had once again reached an all-time high.

Both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats called on Justice Minister Jack Straw to step forward and address the spiralling problem after the record figure was disclosed.

Prison numbers now stand at 81,135, with 80,803 people held in prison and another 332 held in police cells, exceeding by 95 the previous record of 81,040 which was hit in June this year.

With the total prison capacity currently fixed at 81,915, it means there are now only 780 spaces available to house new criminals.

The Ministry of Justice said there had been an increase of 3,100 prison places in the past two years alone and that expansions were continuing.

The new figure for prison numbers is an embarrassment to the Government, which in June was forced into allowing the early release of some criminals in a bid to ease the overcrowding crisis.

The emergency measures initially relieved the problem and after just a week, the prison population had dropped by 1,500 to 79,543 and for the first time since April, no offenders were being held in overspill cells in police stations or courts.

Separate figures released by the Ministry of Justice showed 6,325 criminals, including at least 800 violent offenders, were released under the scheme by the end of August.

But the latest record proves the measures have done little to stem the long-term problem, with police cells once again being used for hundreds of offenders due to lack of prison space.

Shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert said that any extension of the "failing" early release scheme had to be ruled out and emergency secure accommodation found instead.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in