The UK government plans to impose tougher sentences on those convicted of serious crimes, it announced via this year’s king’s speech at the state opening of parliament. Political pundits reacting to the speech on the BBC immediately questioned the rationale behind potentially putting more people in prison, when UK prisons are struggling to accommodate those already under their purview.
The England and Wales prison watchdog has said that one in ten prisons in those two countries should be shut down because of overcrowding and inhumane regimes. Similar concerns have been voiced over prisons in Scotland and in Northern Ireland.
The deteriorating state of the UK’s prisons was emphasised most recently by news reports that, in August 2023, an Irish judge blocked a man’s extradition to Scotland, due to the long hours prisoners in the Scottish estate spend in cells (up to 22 hours a day). The judge also raised concerns about this man’s complex mental health needs, highlighting recent research which identified poor recognition of neuro-developmental disorders across the UK prison estate, despite their relatively high prevalence.
