Prison watch
Our weekly prison watch provides figures on the prison population from the Ministry of Justice.
There are 86,089 people in prisons and young offender institutions in England and Wales. Sensible steps to reduce this number would make communities safer, by easing pressure on the system and enabling more people in trouble to get the support they need to move on from crime.
Overcrowding
Prisons are extremely overcrowded. Under the Ministry of Justice’s own definition of safety and decency, the prison estate should not hold more than 79,464 people. There are currently 6,625 men and women held above this level. Overcrowding is not evenly distributed across the prison estate, so some prisons hold many more people than they are designed to do so safely. You can find out more about which prisons are overcrowded and by how much on this page.
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