Speaking at HMP Five Wells last week, the Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood said the male prison estate has been running at over 99% capacity for 18 months. Only 700 spaces remained at the time of her speech, while 300 was officially ‘critical capacity’.
Mahmood said: ‘If we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system… And a total breakdown of law and order… it is now clear that by September, the prisons will overflow.’
From September, prisoners with eligible standard determinate sentences will leave after serving 40%, rather than 50%, in custody. However, this will not apply to prisoners convicted of sex and serious violent offences, or of offences linked to domestic violence including stalking, controlling or coercive behaviour and non-fatal strangulation.
Mahmood also committed to recruiting an extra 1,000 new trainee probation officers by end of March 2025.
Stephanie Needleman, legal director of JUSTICE, said the plans were ‘an important first step.
‘We particularly welcome the much-needed boost to the probation service. However, the government must adopt deeper changes to make sure this never happens again.
‘The best way of keeping people safe and saving money is to build people real routes away from crime by investing in mental health, youth and addiction services and ending the use of short sentences, which do more harm than good.’
Law Society president Nick Emmerson said the Lord Chancellor had ‘acted pragmatically and decisively to tackle a prisons crisis she inherited’.
He said the crisis was ‘just one of many connected problems in the criminal justice system following decades of underfunding’, and called for ‘a more fundamental review of solutions’.
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