If headlines warning prisons in England and Wales are almost full sound familiar, there’s a reason: we’ve been here before.
Back in 2008, it was worryingly close when prisons came within 21 places of official capacity. So critical was the situation, the justice secretary intervened, urging magistrates to jail fewer people. And, in 2014, the government ordered 40 prisons to take 440 extra offenders between them, despite 34 of them already being at or over capacity.
