MJW responds to PRT's prison overcrowding statistics

MJW responds to PRT’s prison overcrowding statistics

Posted August 28, 2012

This morning the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) published the latest statistics on prison population and reported that 77 out of 131 prisons in England and Wales are overcrowded.

Make Justice Work shares PRT’s view that building more prisons is not the answer. In order to see a decline in the number of people sent to prison we must see an increase in the use of effective alternatives to custody.

Sending offenders to prison for minor offences is an ineffective use of resources with a very poor track record in terms of rehabilitation.

Make Justice Work’s report ‘An economic analysis of alternatives to short term custody’ found that providing intensive alternatives to custody for all eligible young adults would save £500 million, over five years. Not only do community sentences cost less they are also up to 8% more effective at reducing reoffending than short term prison sentences.

Sending offenders to prison for minor offences is senseless and offers very little in terms of rehabilitation at a great cost to taxpayers.

alternatives to custody, overcrowding, prison

Roma Hooper

Roma has worked in and around the criminal justice system since 1992, when she was asked to help set up Britain’s first prison radio station at Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution. She has a Masters in Criminal Justice Policy from the London School of Economics, is Chair of the Griffins Society (supporting women in the criminal justice system), Vice-Chair of the Foundation Training Company (which runs a series of prison and community based resettlement and development programmes) as well as Chair and Founder of the Prison Radio Association. In 2010 she launched Make Justice Work, a campaign to highlight the cost of short-term prison sentences and to improve public confidence in community sentences.