Conclusion 28

As part of our inquiry, we received written evidence from the Prison Reform Trust, Professor Nicola Padfield the University of Cambridge, and from Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe at the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge. They told us that shortcomings in the prison estate, particularly the extent of crowding in prisons, had been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Institute of Criminology was concerned that people were essentially being left to “rot” in their cells, “bored out of their minds and sometimes banged up in overcrowded cells”.62 Both Dr Padfield and the Institute of Criminology told us that prisoners were being locked up to 23 hours per day, often with poor sanitation, with inadequate access to exercise, education or rehabilitation activity and that family visits had been suspended.63 The Prison Reform Trust told us that the Ministry’s compartmentalisation approach was made much more difficult to implement by crowding in prisons. It explained that crowding in prisons meant that there was no reliable means of ensuring that someone with COVID-19 was not sharing a cell with a prisoner who did not yet have the virus. It also said that overcrowding meant that keeping cells clean was an “impossibility” which increased the risk of transmitting disease and, in 57 Qq 14–15, Ministry of Justice, HM Prison and Probation Service COVID-19 Official Statistics Data to 26 June 2020, 3 July 2020 58 Qq 20–21 59 Q 108, IPE0007 - Improving the prison estate, Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe (Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Director of the Institute of Criminology at Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge) 1 July 2020 60 Q 98 61 Q 103 62 IPE0007 - Improving the prison estate, Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe (Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Director of the Institute of Criminology at Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge) 1 July 2020 63 Professor Nicola Padfield (Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice at Universit