Prisoners are being held in “inhumane” conditions as jails spiral out of control with high levels of drugs, violence and suicide, an official annual report has warned.
A scathing independent review catalogues a “tremendous strain” on the prisons system as the Tories fail to get a grasp of a growing crisis across the country. Overcrowding has led to dangerous or violent prisoners being held in lower category jails and adults being held in young offenders’ institutions, the official Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) found.
Prisoners are being held in jails that are in a “physical state of disrepair”, with sometimes “inhumane” conditions and “without access to basic sanitation”. The IMBs national report for 2023 also detailed “complex mental health needs and high levels of self-harm” among women and girls in prison.
It also said processes to identify vulnerable people in immigration detention were “ineffective” , adding: “Too often during 2023, those known to be at risk of harm according to Home Office policy were nonetheless detained or kept detained for too long.”
The Tories have been accused of putting in place “panic measures” as jails run out of space across the country. It emerged last week that some court hearings are to be delayed under emergency measures to cope with a lack of prison cells. It is on top of plans to release prisoners from jail up to 70 days early and measures to keep convicted criminals or remanded defendants in police cells.
Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood 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. Labour will turn the page on 14 years of Conservative failure.”
In her report, Elisabeth Davies, IMB National Chair said: “Prison population pressures and efforts to maximise capacity caused tremendous strain on all detention settings that IMBs monitor. Existing capacity and crowding pressures are forecast to increase and will only exacerbate the concerns highlighted in our 2023 National Annual Report.”