Recommendation 5

The prison capacity crisis risks undermining the safety and security of prisons and reduces HMPPS’s ability to rehabilitate offenders. Due to MoJ’s and HMPPS’s failure to deliver additional prison capacity, the adult male prison estate was operating at 98.0% to 99.7% occupancy between October 2022 and August 2024 and remains alarmingly full. HMPPS cites 95% occupancy as the limit at which it can run the estate efficiently. A quarter of prisoners are doubled up in cells designed for one person. Greater crowding is linked to higher rates of violence and self–harm–the rate of assaults, such as fights between prisoners and attacks on staff, increased significantly in the year to September 2024. Furthermore, admissions procedures within prisons are under strain, meaning some prisoners are not receiving health care assessments or safety interviews to assess risk. Education and drug treatment are essential to rehabilitating offenders. However, crowding and a lack of headroom in the estate creates barriers to prisoners accessing education and makes it difficult for HMPPS to tackle high levels of drug usage in prison. recommendation In its Treasury Minute response, MoJ and HMPPS should set out how they intend to evaluate the impact of prison capacity pressures on key areas such as: a. completeness of risk assessments for new prisoners b. self–harm and levels of violence c. access to prison services such as education, drug rehabilitation, and work opportunities d. access to purposeful activity and time spent outside of cells.