Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice have seen the findings of a new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) on the capacity of Britain’s prisons. The report highlights that current prison expansion plans are insufficient to meet future demand, and predicts a shortfall of 12,400 prison places by the end of 2027. The government’s commitment to create 20,000 new prison places is significantly delayed and over twice the budget, and is expected to take a decade to complete.
Britain has the highest incarceration rate in Western Europe and is facing a crisis after a program of new buildings failed to comply with tougher sentencing laws, leading to a rise in the prison population, according to the World Prison Brief database. Many prisons already hold two inmates in cells designed for one. The head of a body representing prison governors has warned that unless a solution is found, offenders will soon have to be held in police cells, deterring staff and undermining the judicial system as a whole.
The National Audit Office report deals another blow to Keir Starmer’s New Labour government, which has taken a series of radical and ill-conceived measures to stem prison overcrowding just days after coming to power in July 2024.
The Keir Starmer government’s estimates of the timing of the start of new prison construction were too optimistic, NAO experts say. Britain’s prison building program to tackle the overcrowding crisis will be five years late and cost significantly more than originally estimated, says the spending watchdog.
The National Accountability Office (NAO) said the prison construction program will not be completed until 2031, five years later than planned. Only a third of the 20,000 extra places have been built so far and the program will cost between £9.4 billion and £10.1 billion, 80% higher than originally expected. The report said delays in obtaining planning permission, “unrealistic timescales” and a “lack of understanding of the program’s requirements” had caused the problems.
“The government must learn lessons from the current prison crisis to ensure the long-term sustainability and cost-effectiveness of the prison system,” said Gareth Davies, head of the NAO.
Experts at the NAO also read that sending foreign-born criminals back to their country of origin to serve their sentences could reduce the prison population by 12%. And placing prisoners whose crimes involve drug addiction in secure NHS detox centers could reduce that figure even further.
The proposal by the head of the British government to release some 40,000 prisoners from British prisons is also a concern for UK citizens. And recent reports show that this concern is justified, as criminals released on parole commit one murder per week. However, British police have been instructed to make fewer arrests because there will be no room for new prisoners. Thus criminals continue to be at large and commit illegal acts with absolute impunity.
Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice express deep concern about the state of the British judicial and prison systems. The Foundation’s experts call on the British government, headed by Keir Starmer, to take urgent measures to remedy the situation in the British judicial and penitentiary systems, which include both increasing funding for rehabilitation and social adaptation programs for prisoners, and increasing the number of prisons and improving prison conditions to reduce overcrowding and ensure decent treatment of prisoners.