Prisons across the UK were “on the brink of collapse” on three occasions after Rishi Sunak’s last government refused to cut the numbers in jail, an independent review by a former prisons watchdog has revealed.
Dame Anne Owers, former chief inspector of prisons, wrote in her 72-page report titled ‘Independent Review of Prison Capacity’ that the overcrowded system was “in crisis” between autumn 2023 and the summer of 2024.
At one point, there were fewer than 100 spaces left in adult male prisons, with the network at times “running very close to the edge of capacity” and “within three days of meltdown”, the report said. It remains at nearly 97.5 per capacity, despite Labour’s introduction of several early release schemes.
Officials were so anxious about potential breakdowns that they maintained an audit of every decision and document “in case there was a public or parliamentary inquiry”, the report found.
Interviews for the review found that former ministers and senior officials “expressed frustration and sometimes anger” at the repeated refusal to back contingency plans, with many convinced that delaying tactics from No 10 were deliberate.
“Many believed that the default position was to do as little as possible as late as possible, with the consequence that the system repeatedly reached the brink of collapse,” Dame Anne said.
Pressure on the criminal justice system is set to ramp up this weekend, as police warn they may arrest hundreds of people planning to show support for Palestine Action. Forces are also gearing up for further protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers in Greater London, the North East and East Anglia.
Commissioned by justice secretary Shabana Mahmood in February, the review suggests ministers only secured agreement for early release powers when prisons were literally days from being overwhelmed.
“Although departmental ministers were convinced by mid-2023 that some form of early release was both necessary and urgent, this required prime ministerial agreement, which was not forthcoming until the system was within three days of potential collapse, and only in incremental stages,” Dame Anne wrote.
From mid-2023, Alex Chalk, who served as justice secretary at the time, reportedly urged the government to approve an early release scheme to free those serving standard determinate sentences. But the report found that his proposals were repeatedly rebuffed.
“Without exception, all those the review spoke to expressed frustration and sometimes anger at the reluctance to accept and then act on the well-documented and imminent crisis, or to agree any coherent plan to avert it,” Dame Anne
After the general election was called in May 2024, the report discloses that Mr Sunak convened emergency Cobra meetings to discuss “invoking emergency powers” to release prisoners early should the system collapse.
“This might be necessary to avert the risk of public disorder if the criminal justice system collapsed during the election campaign,” the report disclosed.
The Sunak administration later deployed early release schemes on three occasions, using compassionate grounds provisions to ease pressure as jails neared capacity.
Labour minister Ms Mahmood said the report “lays bare the disgraceful way the last Conservative government ran our prisons”.
She said: “They added less than 500 cells to the prison estate over 14 years, released over 10,000 prisoners early under a veil of secrecy, and brought our jails close to total collapse on countless occasions.”
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “In office, the Conservatives rightly listened to the public demand to see criminals punished with proper sentences, and to tackle the capacity issues we had plans to use prisons abroad. Labour scrapped those plans and instead chose to release violent criminals back on our streets.
“Labour aren’t serious about tackling these issues. They blocked our deportation bill that would have mandated the deportation of all foreign criminals. Whilst Labour and Reform want shorter sentences, the Conservatives will make no apology for ensuring that heinous criminals are kept off our streets and behind bars.”
