Commenting on the government’s plan to tackle the prison overcrowding crisis, Enver Solomon, Chief Executive of the social justice charity Nacro, said:
“The government needs to do more than it is currently planning if it is to avert another prisons capacity crisis in the coming months.
“To successfully address the pressure on prison places it is vital to reduce the staggering rise in the number of people being recalled to custody. If this does not happen the new cells being created and those freed up through earlier releases will simply be filled up again by those recalled to prison who are being sent back more often than not for behaviour that is not further offending.
The power to recall plays an important role in protecting the public but a fair proportionate approach is needed and would quickly free up much needed jail space across the country.”
ENDS
Background:
Nacro’s report was published a report last week. Read it in full here.
This new data analysis of Ministry of Justice statistics states that it counterproductive to be spending a large amount of money on recalling people to custody rather than investing in community support to help them reintegrate and reduce the risk of reoffending.
Notes to editors:
To contact the press office email media@nacro.org.uk.
About Nacro’s justice services
Nacro operate in more than 40 prisons and provide services across England and Wales. We help 33,000 people across our services each year and run the CAS-2 service for the Government housing people coming out of prison on bail or licence.
We use the insights from our services and the experiences of the people we support to campaign together for a criminal justice system which better serves us all. We’ve been working in this field for 60 years.