We cannot build our way out of this crisis

The prison system has made headlines again this week. Winchester became the third prison in four weeks to receive an Urgent Notification from HM Inspectorate of Prisons. The Times published a shocking investigation into WhatsApp messages shared by staff at Wandsworth. And TV crews reported live from outside jails as more than 1,000 people were freed under the emergency early release scheme in an attempt to ease overcrowding.

But the most significant development came in a statement to the House of Commons, where the Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood, made an astute declaration that too few politicians have been willing to contemplate during the last three decades: “We cannot build our way out of this crisis.”

The Secretary of State was announcing that one of her predecessors, David Gauke, will chair an independent review of sentencing. She told MPs that the prison population was rising by about 4,500 each year and that the current level of demand would require us to build three “mega-jails” a year, just to keep pace. “However fast we build,” she said, “increasing demand will outstrip supply…we must therefore review our sentencing framework, ensuring we never run out of prison places again.”

This is the right approach, and we have created a dedicated page on our website that explains why. It shows how the trend of imposing ever longer prison sentences has put the prison system under intolerable strain, and it suggests some potential solutions that the Gauke review could consider.

The Howard League welcomed the new government’s proposed review of sentencing three months ago – in our report, Grasping the nettle, which presented options for a lasting solution to the prison capacity crisis. We are pleased to see that a number of recommendations from that publication have been taken forward.

Recognition that we need sentencing reform is a step in the right direction

We called for Home Detention Curfew to be used as a meaningful alternative to prison, and the Secretary of State has announced that it will be extended, with the maximum time to be spent by those eligible increasing from six months to 12 months.

We recommended greater use of executive release under the Release following Risk Assessed Recall (RARR) review process. We pointed out that, while this process is a more time- and cost-effective method of release than parole, use of RARR has declined significantly from more than 1,500 releases in 2017, when the scheme was introduced, to only 20 in 2023. The government has now decided to change the RARR policy to enable its use in a greater number of lower-risk cases.

Grasping the nettle also supported the Prison Governors’ Association’s call for people on standard determinate sentences to be released from prison at the 40% point, not 50%. The new government followed this approach within a few weeks of taking power.

We have some concerns. While admitting that we cannot build our way out of the crisis, the government still intends to build new prisons, at a time when there are insufficient staff to run the ones we already have. The announcements on Tuesday did not touch on the ongoing plight of those still in prison serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), in spite of the fact that this sentence was abolished 12 years ago. The government needs to take meaningful action on this lingering injustice.

But recognition that we need sentencing reform is a step in the right direction. The Gauke review presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a more humane and effective response to crime. We must grab it with both hands.

Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.)

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