“Tolerating overcrowding means tolerating more victims of crime”: Howard League welcomes new independent review of prisons

The Howard League for Penal Reform has responded to the announcement of an Independent Review of Prisons led by former Home Secretary, Amber Rudd (Tuesday 30 June).

The review will look at how to make prisons safer, more secure and better at cutting crime, and aims to tackle drugs, violence and criminal gangs in the system.

Andrew Neilson, Director of Campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “With growing numbers of urgent notifications and ever-more critical inspection reports detailing dire conditions and increasing violence, this review into safety and security in our prisons is very welcome.

“However, the issue of safety and security in prisons will remain challenging so long as overcrowding in the system is tolerated. Tolerating overcrowding also means tolerating more victims of crime when the system fails to rehabilitate those people it releases. To make matters worse, the government’s own prison population projections suggest a future administration will again face running out of cells in a few years, despite billions being spent on new prisons and the changes introduced by the Sentencing Act.

“With a new team coming into Number 10, the government must look again at reversing sentence inflation – which is the root cause of the prison crisis. A truly transformational review must acknowledge this and address the fact that we cannot build our way out of these problems. Much more must be done to reduce prison numbers in order to create a sustainable system that is safer for all of us.”

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. 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/

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Noor Khan
Press and Public Affairs Officer
Tel: +44 (0)20 7241 7873
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