28/08/2012 11:20:00
Overcrowding and high reoffending rates are a fact of life in today’s prison system according to an analysis of recent prison population statistics by the Prison Reform Trust. Despite opening two new prisons this year with a capacity of 2,500 places, 59% of prisons in England and Wales are operating at an overcrowded level.
Although the growth in the prison population has slowed down in recent months, prompting plans to close HMP Wellingborough, there are still 7,294 more people in the prison system than it is designed and built to hold. On 31 July 2012, there were 77 out of 131 establishments over the Prison Service’s Certified Normal Accommodation: “the good, decent standard of accommodation that the Service aspires to provide all prisoners”.
Read more
15/09/2011 07:17:00
ICM survey results offer massive vote of support for community payback and restorative justice.
The results of an ICM telephone poll of 1,000 members of the public, conducted one month after the riots in England, show overwhelming popular support for constructive ways in which offenders can make amends to victims for the harm they have caused.
Read more
The Ministry of Justice today announced a new record number of people held in prisons in England and Wales.
Read the response of Geoff Dobson, Deputy Director Prison Reform Trust, here.
Read more
29/06/2011 00:01:00
Community penalties are now outperforming short prison sentences, according to statistics released today from the latest edition of the Prison Reform Trust’s Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile. If government succeeds in reforming the justice system, building on the success of community measures including diversion into health treatment where appropriate, and holding prison numbers to an unavoidable minimum, it could deliver on its promise of a “rehabilitation revolution”.
Read more
13/01/2011 12:39:00
Overuse of custody over the last fifteen years has been costly and damaging. As it reviews the prison estate, the Ministry of Justice must now make sure that there are effective alternatives to custody and opportunities for diversion into treatment that command the confidence of the courts and the public.
Read more
08/12/2010 17:03:00
The Ministry of Justice green paper is a blueprint for moderate and sensible reform and should mark the end of sterile debate on toughness or softness on crime. Rather than settling for policy-making on the hoof or enduring a crisis-driven justice system, the Secretary of State for justice has opened a proper consultation on sentencing and rehabilitation based on evidence of what works.
Read more
07/08/2009 15:55:00
The latest figures released by the Prison Service today show the prison population to be at a new record high of 84,150.
Read more
08/12/2008 10:02:00
Building American-style Titan prisons to warehouse thousands of prisoners could fatally undermine the justice system’s ability to cut crime by reforming offenders and instead set England and Wales on the fast-track to copying the damaging and discredited US prison system, a leading US civil rights lawyer will warn tonight at the Prison Reform Trust’s annual lecture.
Read more
07/08/2008 15:43:00
As it publishes the list of the top 20 most overcrowded jails in England and Wales, the Prison Reform Trust warns that the human and financial cost of prison growth and overcrowding is now too great to bear.
Read more
02/05/2008 15:38:00
The Prison Service announced on Friday 2 May 2008, that the number of people held in custody in England and Wales had risen to a new all-time high of 82,501.
Read more