Where are the staff to oversee prison places going to come from?
The Government finds itself in an invidious position when it comes to prison places. Sir Keir Starmer’s government allowed the early release of prisoners to free up some capacity and his successor could find himself in a similar position.
It would be unfair to blame the prisons crisis on Labour, however, the way that the Government responds to the current predicament could well define how the electorate views the party when it comes to justice.
The pledge to speed up the building of extra prison places is to be welcomed but it remains to be seen how and if it will even work. The Government’s latest plan is to turn laundries and other parts of prisons into cells in a bid to tackle overcrowding.
Even if the Government is able to convert other parts of the prison estate into cells, there is still a question mark over the additional staff that are required to house inmates.
The fact that HMP Millsike, on the edge of the East Riding of Yorkshire, opened in March last year at a cost of £400m, yet is still operating at hundreds of prisoners below its full capacity is a reminder that this isn’t just an issue of finding the real estate to house criminals in.
The national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association has raised staff retention problems and questioned where the extra workers would come from to staff the new prison places. The Government must provide the answers to these questions if it is going to get on top of the prisons crisis.
It isn’t just prisons that are in a state of crisis. The backlogs courts face is another indicator of the wider justice system faltering.