Building more prisons is not an answer to the crisis, says the head of the Review

Britain’s prison population has roughly doubled over the past three decades, with capacity lagging behind, and by September the system was running out of space in 100 places.

Gauke told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that the crisis release of prisoners this autumn was inevitable for the new Labor government because of “the conditions they inherited”.

He stressed “I’m not speaking as a Labor person” and said that “any government of any color would have been forced to make that decision, or something very similar to it, at that particular time”.

He warned that forecasts showed demand for prison cells would continue to increase “very significantly”, but he hoped the sentencing review could help avoid the same bottleneck in the future by reducing the number of people sent to prison reduce.

“What we want to avoid is a situation where prisoners are released as a momentary moment to relieve pressure,” he said.

“What we need to do is more strategic – we need to ensure that prison capacity meets demand and that means looking at the demand for prison places and that I think is where looking at the sentencing regime is necessary and important. “

The current prison crisis has built up over the past thirty years, Gauke said, as a result of successive government decisions to lengthen average sentences, creating a situation where Britain is “much more heavily dependent on prison than any other West -European country”.

While he said prisons are an important part of the justice system, he questioned whether Britain should continue to build more prisons because “it is very expensive and… there is no evidence that it is an effective way of reducing crime.” to reduce”.

Instead, he talked about using technology to create tougher non-custodial sentences, following the approach of other countries with much lower prison populations.

With more than half of women in prison serving sentences of six months or less, Gauke said reducing the female prison population was also an option to free up space.

He said: “It is clear that there are female prisoners who need to go to prison, who commit serious offenses and it is right that they go to prison, but I think there is a case for looking at short sentences more generally .

“There is a specific problem with female offenders who are very often victims of crime themselves, often dealing with issues of mental health, substance abuse and so on, which can be addressed outside of prison.

“So I would certainly look at that, and I said this as attorney general: I think we can reduce the female prison population.”

The latest government figures show that more than half of women are sent to prison for less than six months, while 3% of the total prison population is behind bars during that time.

The sentencing review is now open to submissions from the public on how the prison system can be improved and will present its findings to the Lord Chancellor in spring 2025.