Recommendation 9

In December 2024, MoJ published its 10–year capacity strategy which set out its plans to deliver the remaining 14,000 prison places by 2031.29 The majority of the remaining places will come from four new prisons (6,500) and additional houseblocks (6,400), with a further 1,100 from Rapid Deployment Cells and around 1,150 places from refurbishments of cells.30 The strategy emphasised the continued need for prison places, stating, “we still project the prison population to increase by an average of 3,000 annually over the coming years”.31