Ministers are 'failing' to protect the public due to prison crisis, report warns

The annual report from the chair of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), which scrutinises prisons and detention centres on behalf of ministers, found that there are widespread issues in the prison estate which are impacting the ability to safely rehabilitate prisoners back into society.

Its findings, published today, found that there is a “population crisis” in prisons that is affecting all aspects of prison life.

Many prisons are still recovering from the effects of the pandemic, while the number of prisoners increased by over 5,200 people during 2023.

Conditions for some prisoners were described as “inhumane” without access to basic sanitation.

This has seen a high number of people at risk of suicide and self-harm, as well as an increase in violence, with ministers previously warned that improvements are needed.

The report found that children were carrying weapons in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) because they felt unsafe, with staff sometimes resorting to force to keep girls from self-harming.

In addition this has seen prisoners shifted around the estate to find room, with adults placed alongside children in YOIs because of overcrowding in prisons. Children were also found to receive less education than those in the community.

Many prisoners were also kept in prisons that did not offer the courses that they needed in order to begin the journey to rehabilitate into society, the report found.

In YOI Wetherby in Yorkshire, girls were found to have self-harmed repeatedly, with ministers warned again that it was not a suitable place to keep many with volatile behaviour, with its unit dedicated to vulnerable children seeing “unprecedented” pressure.

Elisabeth Davies, IMB National Chair said: “During 2023, over 37,700 visits were carried out by local IMBs, providing direct evidence to ministers on where change needs to occur for prisons to provide effective rehabilitation and, in turn, protect the public, something they are currently failing to do.

“It is time that ministers saw the value of the IMB members they have appointed and start listening to what is being reported to them from prisons across England and Wales.”

Shabana Mahmood, Labour’s shadow justice secretary, said: “The Tories’ mismanagement of jails is a growing catalogue of abject failure. Yet Rishi Sunak’s only answer to a crisis of his government’s own making appears to be releasing dangerous offenders onto our streets and hiding it from the public.

“This is the latest report that shows offender rehabilitation efforts have gone backwards. This risks prisoners being released back into communities as more hardened criminals than when they went in.”

The Financial Times this week reported that Sue Gray, Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, had placed prison overcrowding on her list of potential calamities that an incoming Labour government could face, alongside bankrupt councils and universities going under.

Downing Street this month denied that it is trying to pass the buck to prison governors in the face of criticism over freeing criminals from jail early.

Government officials have said that prison leaders had a “veto” to block offenders being released earlier than planned if they posed a risk to the public, despite assurances from the Prime Minister that “no one” would be put on the scheme if they were a risk to public safety.

Prisons watchdog Charlie Taylor raised “serious concerns” about the policy introduced in a bid to ease overcrowding in jails, as he highlighted examples of high-risk inmates selected for early release, including a domestic abuser who posed a threat to children.

The Ministry of Justice was contacted for comment.