Thousands of prisoners to be released in September

How do people feel about this?

I don't think anyone is actually going to like this but needs must given the lack of prison spaces. The previous Tory administration did not increase prison capacity. On one of the recent Spectator podcasts it was said that this might even be one of the reasons behind Sunak's early election call - to avoid either prison riots up and down the country over the summer or mass release of prisoners early under his government.

This is a bit of a joke. Just put a extra bed per cell and double them up.

If non-violent criminals are coming out, to make space for violent ones going in, I have no problem with it whatsoever.

That's already happened, the cells that have the space to accommodate multiple prisoners already do so.
The problem is more than just overcrowding, it's that the *overcrowding* has reached its maximum level.
Ultimately if we want to imprison more people, we have to build the prisons to do that - and building and running a larger prison state is expensive.

This is 40% of the time served instead of the current 50%. Sentencing in England and Justice system guidelines are already relatively low when it comes to sentencing for offences. If anything, it may result in increased crime now as people are aware repercussions will not be as severe.

This is 40% of the time served instead of the current 50%. Sentencing in England and Justice system guidelines are already relatively low when it comes to sentencing for offences. If anything, it may result in increased crime now as people are aware repercussions will not be as severe.

That's already happened, the cells that have the space to accommodate multiple prisoners already do so.
The problem is more than just overcrowding, it's that the *overcrowding* has reached its maximum level.
Ultimately if we want to imprison more people, we have to build the prisons to do that - and building and running a larger prison estate is expensive.

I doubt that we are at capacity for stacking prisoners in cells. I suspect the government thinks they are at capacity what they would consider humane conditions but they are prisoners. I say stack them in cells tight like cattle.
Prisoners should not be afforded luxury in prison.

I doubt that we are at capacity for stacking prisoners in cells. I suspect the government thinks they are at capacity what they would consider humane conditions but they are prisoners. I say stack them in cells tight like cattle.
Prisoners should not be afforded luxury in prison.

Dehumanising prisoners is not the smartest approach if you want to reintegrate them into society and reduce reoffending.
It is also expensive. I’d wish you to foot the £46,000/year per prisoner and £600,000 cost for each new prison cell, then go for it but not all of us like high taxes.

The quickest of googles would show that UK prisons are allocated £2.70 per prisoner for daily prison meals, thats about £1,000 - it's a very small proportion of the overall cost and a quick google of images of typical UK prison food shows its pretty grim as it is.

Prisons are expensive not because of food, but because they involve lots of physical infrastructure and lots of staff. Cells are pretty small as it is, not luxurious at all, and its not just about cell space, a prisons capacity is also limited by it's surrounding infrastructure which is roughly set up for its designed capacity.

Two further points:

Firstly, as Gazpacho highlights, de-humanizing prisoners and/or treating them with deliberate brutality pretty much removes any rehabilitative effect - re-offending rates are likely to rise and crimes will increase. Plenty of data from the UK and elsewhere showing that a pure punishment approach to imprisonment trends toward this.

Secondly - If you found yourself in prison, would you personally be OK with being stacked 4 to a cell, barely any space to move, sleeping on a concrete floor, subject to daily violence due to overcrowding, eating only bread and water, with no opportunities to learn new skills to rebuild your life after release?

At this point you might reply with "I would never be sent to prison", which is easy to say but consider just as a starter:


All ways in which almost any us *could* find ourselves in a prison cell, and if we were I do not think any of us would want to be in the conditions you've proposed above in your posts.