Prisons at double capacity as crisis reaches breaking point
Shocking new figures show some jails are now operating at nearly double their intended capacity, as the prison crisis continues to worsen.
Ministry of Justice data analysed by the Howard League found three out of four men's prisons are holding more people than they are designed for.
"Caging men in squalor with nothing to do all day is never going to help them become law-abiding citizens on release," Howard League chief executive Frances Crook said.
"Far too many people are being sent into already overcrowded jails and the need to stem the flow is now urgent."
The new data comes amid concerns that the tough-on-crime approach favoured by justice secretary Chris Grayling is clashing with severe spending cuts to the prison estate.
The most overcrowded prison was Leeds, which was designed to accommodate 669 prisoners but was holding 1,218 at the end of January.
Swansea was holding 422 prisoners in a jail meant for 242, while Wandsworth was holding 1,606 in a space meant for 943.
Faced with an ever-growing prison population and cuts to finding, prison governors are being forced to stuff jail cells intended for one person with two or even three prisoners.
Freedom of information requests from Howard League showed that on an average day almost 19,000 prisoners are 'doubled up' and 800 'trebled up' in a single cell.
The policy is now the norm in many privately-run prisons, such as Birmingham and Altcourse, which are G4S-run, or Doncaster, which is Serco-run
At its worst, overcrowding forces multiple prisoners to share a six-by-ten foot cell designed for one, with little ventilation and an unscreened toilet. They are very often kept in the cells for 23-hours a day, with nothing to do.
