The early days of the new Labour government have given prison reform advocates reason to be hopeful. Two announcements – the appointment of James Timpson as prisons minister and an expanded early release programme – are promising steps towards repairing a criminal justice system that has been devastated by cuts and neglect.
Prison overcrowding is the most pressing issue, with the current population standing at more than 87,000. This significantly exceeds the Ministry of Justice’s “safe and decent” capacity of 79,695 inmates. England and Wales have one of the highest rates of imprisonment in western Europe, almost twice as high as Germany.
