Spending on the prison and probation system in England and Wales has grown by 36 percent in real terms since 2004 despite a major reorganisation that was meant to save money, a new report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies has found. Prison and probation expenditure 1999 - 2009 found that spending on the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) - which combines the costs of operating the prison, probation and headquarters function - rose in real terms from £3.6 billion in 2004/05 to £4.9 billion in 2008/09.
Despite this significant increase in expenditure, frontline resources have been increasingly overstretched. Public prisons have experienced successive annual real terms cuts in expenditure per prisoners since 2006 and overcrowding has increased. In probation, key frontline staffing groups peaked in 2006 and have since declined in the face of a continuing rise in the number of people subject to probation supervision.
The report also found that there were significant gaps in the information necessary to establish a comprehensive picture of prison and probation costs, making an informed public debate on penal expenditure very difficult. The lack of detailed cost breakdowns in publicly available reports means it is impossible to establish spending trends on key investments such as ITC, accredited programmes, or the cost of the three major reorganisations in this period.
Key facts from the report
On prisons:
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Between 2003/04 and 2008/09 prison expenditure in England and Wales increased by 38.9 percent in real terms, from £2.868 bn to £3.982 bn (Table 1, page 46). This followed a real terms decline of 3.2 percent between 1998/99 and 2002/03 (Table 2, page 47). Figures for these two periods are not directly comparable due to different collation methods.
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The average capital building cost per prison place increased by 66.3 percent in real terms between 1998/99 and 2008/09, from £85,397 to £142,000 (Table 10, page 52).
On probation:
Dr Roger Grimshaw, director of research at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and one of the report co-authors said:
`Prison and probation expenditure has increased dramatically over the past decade. Yet the frontline is running to catch up with demand. How sustainable or desirable is this spending in the age of austerity and how realistic are the current demands placed on the criminal justice system?'
Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said:
`This report documents in great detail Labour's audacious agenda to expand the size and reach of the prison and probation service. Its legacy is record expenditure, an overstretched workforce and an overburdened system. The current financial crisis offers a rare opportunity to rethink some basic assumptions about the size and scale of the prison and probation services and the demands we place on the staff working in them.'
ends
Contact:
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Richard Garside, 020 7848 1679; 07989 474 610
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Roger Grimshaw, 020 7848 1616; 07963 870 271
Notes to editors
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Prison and probation expenditure, 1999-2009, by Helen Mills, Arianna Silvestri and Dr Roger Grimshaw, is based on detailed analysis of publicly available data. The report is available to download here. Hard copy versions, priced at £50, will be available in August 2010. Orders before August 1, 2010 will receive a 25 percent discount. The report is the second in a three part series on criminal justice expenditure between 1999 and 2009, funded by the Hadley Trust.
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The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies is an independent public interest charity that engages with the worlds of research and policy, practice and campaigning. Its mission is to inspire enduring change by promoting understanding of social harm, the centrality of social justice and the limits of criminal justice. Its vision is of a society in which everyone benefits from equality, safety, social and economic security.
