The prisons crisis will not be solved by half-measures 

The Howard League for Penal Reform has responded after the government announced today (Thursday 22 May) that it will accept most of the major proposals put forward by the Independent Sentencing Review.

In a statement to the House of Commons, the Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood, said that the government would accept the key measures, in principle, with further detail to follow in a sentencing bill.

But the government will not accept the reviewers’ recommendation to introduce earned earlier release for people in prison serving extended determinate sentences.

Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.), Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “The government is taking an important step forward by accepting most of the recommendations from this important review.

“But the prisons crisis will not be solved by half-measures. The government’s refusal to proceed with earned release via the Parole Board, for people on extended determinate sentences, will make it much harder to turn around an overcrowded and under-resourced system on the brink of collapse.

“There are still many difficult questions to be faced and answered. If the government ducks them, its promises on prison capacity will go unfulfilled.”

Notes to editors

1. The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the world. It is a national charity working for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.
2. The final report of the Independent Sentencing Review can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-sentencing-review-final-report
3. The Howard League’s submission to the Independent Sentencing Review can be found at: https://howardleague.org/submission-to-the-independent-sentencing-reviews-call-for-evidence/
4. For detailed analysis of how sentencing policy failures have contributed to the prison capacity crisis, read the explainer article ‘What is sentence inflation?’ on the Howard League website: https://howardleague.org/what-is-sentence-inflation/
5. In September 2024, the Howard League published a paper by the most senior former judges in England and Wales, which called on the government to reverse the trend of imposing ever longer prison sentences. Read Sentence inflation: a judicial critique on the Howard League website: https://howardleague.org/publications/sentence-inflation-a-judicial-critique/
6. For more information about the prison overcrowding crisis, read the explainer article ‘Why are prisons overcrowded?’ on the Howard League website: https://howardleague.org/why-are-prisons-overcrowded/
7. An earlier report from the sentencing review, published in February 2025, stated that the number of people in prison had grown by 40,000 and the number under probation supervision had risen by more than 100,000 since 1993. This, the report said, was the result of many decisions made by successive governments and a “tough on crime” narrative that has focused primarily on punishment – understood as incarceration and longer sentences – on occasion responding to embedded misunderstandings about sentencing and high-profile individual cases. Read the report at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-sentencing-review-history-and-trends-in-sentencing

Contact

Noor Khan
Press and Public Affairs Officer
Tel: +44 (0)20 7241 7873
Email: [email protected]