The prison population for England and Wales today (Friday 23 April) exceeded 85,000 for the first time, with 85,076 men, women and children in custody.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:
With a government of any stripe facing tough choices after the election, the cost of sustaining our out of control prison population has gone beyond affordable bounds. Each new prison place costs £170,000 to build and maintain, and the cost per prisoner per year is £41,000.
Despite its expense and poor record at reducing reoffending, both the Labour and Conservative parties are committed to expanding prison capacity further to 96,000 places by 2014. This approach is economically and socially unsustainable.
Instead of planning how to cope with ever rising prison numbers, politicians should be working hard to reduce any unnecessary use of imprisonment. This would mean less breach and remand, fewer mandatory terms, a review of indeterminate sentences and proportionate sentencing guidelines. When it comes to reducing reoffending, community penalties involving treatment for addicts, mental healthcare and sorting out housing and employment all work better than a short prison sentence.
For more information on our prisons and people in them see our Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile
