7 Jul 2026
“This is the scale of the challenge awaiting a new Prime Minister”: Howard League responds to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons’ Annual Report 2025-26
The Howard League for Penal Reform has responded to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons’ Annual Report for 2025-26, published today (Tuesday 7 July).
The report, which draws on inspection findings published between April 2025 and March 2026, states that too many prisons in England and Wales are failing in their responsibility to make people less likely to reoffend.
It highlights a wide range of problems inside prisons, from deteriorating living conditions and security failings to the large number of people, including many women, being released from custody without a settled address.
The report calls on the prison service to provide more purposeful activity in prisons, to help tackle widespread drug use and violence.
Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.), Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “People can turn their lives around and move on from crime if they are given the support they need in a positive environment, but too many prisons in England and Wales deliver the opposite. Violence, drugs, frustration and despair are daily features of a broken public service that has been asked to do too much, with too little, for too long.
“Many of the observations made in the Chief Inspector’s sixth and final annual report could have been made in his first. Although the government has taken steps to reduce the prison population in the short term, many jails remain overcrowded and we continue to see people being warehoused in their cells for 22 hours a day or more. Spending billions on new jails will make this overstretched system even larger and the problems even harder to solve.
“This is the scale of the challenge awaiting a new Prime Minister. Tackling the prisons crisis ought to be a top priority for Sir Keir Starmer’s successor.”
Notes to editors
- 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.
- HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales Annual Report 2025-26 will be available on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website at: https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/our-reports/
Contact
Noor Khan
Press and Public Affairs Officer
Tel: +44 (0)20 7241 7873
Email: [email protected]
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