Prisons tend not to draw political attention except when they go wrong, and even then they have to go badly wrong. There are strong incentives for governments to neglect a service used by relatively few voters, and prisoners themselves can’t vote. But the prison system serves the wider community in various indirect ways. Locking criminals away protects the public. Conviction and punishment signal to society that justice is being done. Rehabilitation inside jails reduces reoffending. All of those functions are now breaking down, and the collapse is getting increasingly hard to ignore.
Last week it emerged that some prisoners serving short sentences will be eligible for release 70 days early, not because they have necessarily earned their freedom but because jails are full. This is the third such relaxation since October 2023 when the discount was 18 days, rising to 60 in March this year. Meanwhile, it has been reported that police forces in England and Wales have been advised to make fewer arrests because there are not enough available cells.
