Extra 6,000 prisoners forced to share cells

An extra 6,000 prisoners are having to live in shared cells due to the capacity crisis in jails, according to figures obtained by Inside Time under the Freedom of Information Act.

In March 2021 there were 27,700 men and women held in ‘multi-occupancy locations’ – mostly two-person cells, but occasionally three-person cells or dormitories – in prisons in England and Wales. This figure rose to 29,500 by March 2022 and to 33,700 by March 2023.

In men’s jails, the proportion of prisoners living in single cells declined from 64 per cent to 60 per cent. In women’s jails, it declined from 76 per cent to 71 per cent. The increase in cell-sharing is understood to be mostly the result of ‘doubling-up’ cells built for single occupancy.

The data was disclosed by the Ministry of Justice. An official stated in a covering letter: “We have … taken tough and decisive action to free up additional places in the immediate term, including greater use of double occupancy of cells where it is safe to do so and delaying non-urgent maintenance work. Increases in cell occupancy have only been approved where it has been assessed as safe to do so – there are no plans to increase crowding beyond the levels judged to be safe.”

Every prison has a fixed “operational capacity”, which is the maximum number of prisoners it is permitted to hold. The figures are set by HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) taking into account the physical layout of the building, the facilities, and the number of staff.

In 2022, faced with a sharp rise in the prison population, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) reviewed the operational capacity of every prison to see where extra spaces could be made available. The Prison Governors’ Association described the exercise in a letter to the Justice Secretary sent in February 2023, stating: “A limited number of additional spaces were identified so as to increase the capacity of individual prisons across the estate. Although freeing up more spaces meant more overcrowding, the PGA supported this increase after receiving assurances that the increased total capacity was a ‘red line’ which would not be crossed.”

The PGA, at the time, threatened legal action if any further attempt was made to squeeze more prisoners into existing prison cellblocks. Nevertheless, HMPPS carried out another review of operational capacity in 2023.

Phil Copple, Director General Operations for HMPPS, told MPs on the Justice Select Committee last month: “We have reviewed crowding across the whole system and we have challenged ourselves to ensure that we are maximising the crowding on the same basis across the system.

“We have not been in a position to reduce crowding, but have actually increased it by around 900 places across the whole system over the last year or so. A number of prisons have that additional challenge from having more prisoners in them because of those situations and the overall capacity position for the system.”

Between February 2023 and October 2023, 48 prisons in England and Wales saw their operational capacity increase while only 12 saw it reduce. Among the prisons where operational capacity went up were inner-city jails such as Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Pentonville, and Brixton.

The prison population in England and Wales rose by 6,300 between March 2021 and March 2023, going from 78,100 to 84,400. Factors driving the increase included the re-opening of courts following the Covid pandemic and increases in sentence lengths.