UK headed for prison meltdown

Duncan Campbell and Alan Travis

The former head of the prison service has warned that up to 100,000 people could be in jail by the end of the decade unless drastic and immediate action is taken by the government.The prediction from Martin Narey came as the prison population in England and Wales reached an all-time high yesterday of more than 80,300, with only four spare places left in emergency police cells anywhere in the country. The crisis meant prison service officials were, for the first time, forced to turn to cells in magistrates courts with hard benches, no beds and no toilets. The move had near disastrous consequences. Securicor officers were asked to volunteer to look after four prisoners held overnight at a magistrates court in north London. One of the prisoners made a suicide attempt which was only prevented at the last minute.Speaking to the Guardian, Mr Narey warned that Britain is heading towards US levels of imprisonment.

“I wouldn’t be surprised at all if by 2010 there were 100,000 people in prison. I think there is every chance that, at the end of the decade, we will look back nostalgically at a figure of 80,000. The US experience shows there is no end to this.”

He added that about 6,000 people were locked up at any one time who are “profoundly mentally ill”.

The former director of the prison service was speaking as part of a Guardian investigation into the huge rise in the prison population over the last decade.

David Blunkett also admitted his regrets that, as home secretary, he was unable to convince judges of the importance of non-custodial sentences for minor offences.

“If I have a big regret about the three and half years as home secretary, it is that I never quite got that message across. Judges used to say to me that ‘there is a contradiction here; you keep saying you want more community sentences and less short prison sentences but then in the next breath you’re talking about tough sentences and life meaning life.’ They are entirely compatible as far as I’m concerned… I never wanted them to go soft but to be consistent.”

A former prison governor, Stephen Rimmer, now director of strategy at the Metropolitan police, suggested that only another Strangeways riot might gain the public’s attention on the issue of overcrowding.

Yesterday the jail population in England and Wales reached an all-time high of 80,316, including 397 locked overnight in police cells under Operation Safeguard.

But, with impending local elections, the home secretary John Reid is firmly against any new early release programme.

Ministers are in the process of building 10,000 extra prison places with “temporary custodial modules” being rushed into existing prison perimeters to create 700 more places this year. The bulk of the extra places, however, are several years behind Mr Narey’s prediction.

Lord Falconer, who will take over responsibility for prisons in May when they pass into the control of the newly created justice ministry, said yesterday the role and limits of incarceration needed to be clarified and acknowledged the need to manage the “burgeoning prison population” better. He refused to rule out a new early release programme and said he would consider legislation requiring judges to consider prison overcrowding when sentencing.

The last three years has seen a 26% increase in the number of children and young people criminalised and seven times as much is spent on youth custody as on prevention schemes. We lock up 23 children per 100,000 population, compared with six in France, two in Spain and 0.2 in Finland.

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