Pact Responds To New Plans To Reduce Pressure On Prison Spaces

11/12/2024

News

Pact responds to government's 10-year Prison Capacity Strategy

In response to today's publication of the Government’s 10-year prison capacity strategy, Andy Keen-Downs, CEO of the Prison Advice and Care Trust, said:

“The new government has shown some welcome and refreshing long-term thinking in recent months. This capacity strategy, alongside the sentencing review, shows that ministers are serious about finding long-term solutions to the crisis in the criminal justice system.

“However, as we have been saying for some time, and as the National Audit Office has now confirmed, we cannot build our way out of the prisons crisis, nor should we try. Quite simply, we are sending too many people to prison for too long. The pressure this places on a creaking and underfunded system has become unsustainable. It does not cut crime.

“Rather than building fourteen thousand new prison places and locking people up for longer, we should be investing in services that stop people from committing crime in the first place. Much of this money would be better spent on rehabilitation and resettlement programmes that would prevent people from getting stuck in a vicious cycle of reoffending. We also need to invest urgently in the treatment and care of mentally ill people, far too many of whom get trapped in our prison system when they are at risk of losing their lives. 

“If we must build new prisons, open ‘Category D’ prisons should be prioritised - they are faster to build, cheaper to run, and prepare prison leavers more effectively for life after release.”  

Listen to Andy Keen-Downs on BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show with Tina Daheley: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0025mg4 

 

 

Support for prisoners' families

If you have a loved one in prison, you can find support through the Prisoners' Families Helpline & website:

Pact also has a new resource: Your Guide to Prison Healthcare, a guide created by prisoners' families for anyone supporting a loved one in prison living with a mental or physical health condition.