28 October 2005
The rise in the prison population came in for criticism this week as government auditors revealed that prisons were close to capacity.
A National Audit Office report published on October 27 disclosed that, at 77,300 in September 2005, the prison population in England and Wales was the largest recorded. Over the past decade, prison numbers have risen by more than 25,000.
Commenting on the figures, Public Accounts Committee chair Edward Leigh said prisons were close to 'bursting point', while more big rises in the prisoner population were a possibility.
He said: 'At present too many prisoners are being locked up in unsuitable and overcrowded cells; and any further sharing of cells and heightened pressure on staff time will surely exacerbate tension in prisons.'
The NAO report follows comments from Martin Narey, the departing head of the National Offender Management Services, expressing his dismay at the record number of prisoners.
In an article for the Howard League for Penal Reform, to be published in December, Narey says: 'With such pressure on prisons, and even after the investment they have received, the numbers locked up often overwhelm regimes.
'Overcrowding condemns about 16,000 prisoners every day to conditions… which are simply gross.'
PFoct2005
