NCJ Number
155435
Date Published
1995
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Prison overcrowding and its impacts in the United Kingdom are examined, with emphasis on the reports by the Chief Inspector of Prisons and Lord Woolf.
Abstract
Following the implementation of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, which had tight statutory restrictions on the use of imprisonment, the use of custody declined sharply by the end of 1992. However, the prison population increased sharply in 1993 and 1994 following strong media and political pressure for harsher policies toward offenders, including a greater use of imprisonment. Overcrowding is most severe in the Victorian-built city center local prisons. Overcrowding often results in cramped and unpleasant physical conditions and in restricted programs. It can also increase the risk of disturbances, either by increasing tension and frustration among those forced to live in such conditions or by creating effects in other parts of the prison system. Overcrowding has also resulted in many inmate transfers; many inmates are now held hundreds of miles from their homes. The increasing mood of harshness has led to the increasing incarceration of nonviolent and less serious offenders for whom community sentences would be a better option with a greater chance of preventing recidivism. These findings indicate the need for a legal limit on the number of prisoners in each prison; otherwise, city center local prisons will always bear the brunt of excessive numbers at times of severe pressure on the system. Table