23 closures in 14 years and how PM plans to fix UK prison crisis

Britain’s prisons crisis has its roots in a failure to add sufficient new places between 2010 and 2024. Just 500 places were added and 23 closures of prisons. As a result, the system is now dangerously close to capacity and we are running the risk of new offenders not being incarcerated in a timely manner.

This post was sourced from Andy Burnham’s post on X.

23 closures in 14 years

The situation must be gripped and that is what I have done in my first days as Prime Minister. But I have done so by trying to put myself in the shoes of victims of crime and seeing things through their eyes. My approach has been to maximise support for them and minimise the risks to public safety.

For someone trying to rebuild their life after a traumatic experience, few things could feel more unjust than learning the person responsible for their suffering would be released earlier than thought. Yet that has been the painful experience of many victims.

I understand their anger and anxiety. More than that, I share it. Because of that, one of my first decisions as Prime Minister was to pause the plan for early release in September and order an urgent review of the scheme.

That has now concluded and, as a result, I have decided to make some significant changes to the plans I inherited. Sentences for rape, serious child sex offences and other grooming offences will now be excluded from the changes. This will be on top of the offenders who are already blocked because they have been deemed by the courts as the most dangerous prisoners.

The Prime Minister wants to go further

The truth is I wanted to go even further. I know there will be concerns about who will still be released early for other offences. I’ve pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do. I know I can look people in the eye and say to them there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing within months.

Such an outcome would expose the public to enormous risk. Police would be unable to make arrests. Courts would be unable to send new offenders to prison. Our justice system would grind to a halt. All this is the reason why sentencing changes were rightly introduced in the first place.

However, I am determined to do more to support victims and the public. So, as well as excluding those sentences for rape, serious child sex offences and other grooming offences, we will be introducing much tougher community measures. Nearly all offenders released will be tagged. The period of supervision will be toughened. And we will be imposing new conditions for offenders, including restriction zones agreed with victims. As part of the changes, we will be giving probation officers the power to ban offenders from driving, pubs and community events.

What is next for British prisons after 23 closures?

There will also be a new package of support for victims because they must be placed at the heart of the justice system. This will be backed by £10 million in new funding to provide trauma-informed contacts for victims, alongside a new national helpline.

The Government I lead will work to fix the prison crisis once and for all. I will not leave the same problems for my successors. We will deliver the fastest prison building programme since the Victorian era, with 14,000 new places expected by 2031.

To avoid a repeat of this situation, I have also asked the Justice Secretary to identify other ways to free up prison capacity that will be more palatable to the public.

First, I have asked him to review the indefinite sentences handed out between 2005 and 2012, called Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP). This has left many hundreds of people in prison since they were young but without any prospect of release despite having already served very long sentences.

Second, I have asked for the early release of more women prisoners to be considered, and to look at converting more of the women’s prison estate to hold male prisoners, given the lower risk they generally pose.

Third, I have asked officials to consider faster returns of foreign national offenders to their country of origin.

I have spent much of my political life campaigning for victims, from the families of the Hillsborough disaster to those affected by the infected blood scandal. I have seen the pain caused when people are let down by the very institutions meant to protect them.

The changes

The changes we are announcing today will make a difference, but I do not pretend it is a perfect solution or that it goes as far as I would like. My commitment over the months and years ahead is to rebuild our justice system so that it commands the confidence of the public. This will not happen overnight and nor without difficulty. But we will deliver a justice system that the British people expect and deserve.