The cost of prisons
At a time when the prison and probation services are crying out for resources, it seemed rather timely that the Ministry of Justice published its information release giving costs per place and costs per prisoner by individual prison last week (21 March 2024). The information release gives the total “direct resource expenditure” for all prisons for 2022/23 as £2,751,481,717 and the overall resource expenditure as a whopping £4,181,725,178.
The costs per prison place vary by type of institution with male open prisons costing an average of £22,205 per place and male YOIs £82,566. The parallel cost per prisoner are £27,348 for male opens and £178,970 for male YOIs. Given the current level of overcrowding, costs per prisoner for the current year may actually go down although overall costs will of course increase.
Variation
While we expect some types of establishment to be much more expensive than others – and anyone who has been to a male local recently won’t be surprised at the relatively low cost per place in these prisons – there is also considerable variation between the same types of establishment as my table below shows. The costs shown are cost per prisoner per year.
Titan prisons
These figures show why the Government is wedded to the idea of these new super-sized Titan prisons. The cost per prisoner at HMP Oakwood with an average population of 2,069 in 2022/23 (despite its Certified Normal Accommodation being 1,600) was £17,006. Similarly HMP Berwyn (average 1,828, CNA 2,106) was £22,218. HMP Aylesbury held an average of just 375 prisoners (CNA 402) at double the cost per prisoner – £44,723. Similarly, Morton Hall (average 230, CNA 353) cost £48,716 per prisoner.
Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the header image in this post. You can see Andy’s work here
3 responses
Just read about Damian Wojnilowicz, 36, was jailed for 22 months at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday for carrying out the unusual burglary in Monmouthshire on 16 July.- unusual as he stole nothing but water to wash his clothes and body and food – he was homeless. He left a meal for the home owner and done some domestic chores ? My stupid tiny brain thinks so they are prepared to cost a sentence of 22 months , that’s the deposit on a home or the cost of a home in hard to live in areas – homelessness is a vicious cycle- he’ll be out in 6 months- prison get the money- he’s on the street again – unable to get work because he has no address and around we go oh what a money making scam and criminalising homelessness and mental illness the prison service haven’t ever had it so good – the system is broken- people are broken we live in a world where no one cares about anyone anymore
Entirely agree. Unfortunately politicians who create these systems believe that being macho and focussing on punishment and retribution rather than rehabilitation is a vote winner. Couple this with a drive by the private sector to make money from the incarceration of others and you end up where we are now.
Phrased like that people get resentful with the idea of rehabilitation.
The core issue must be reducing repeat offending…Surely there is no point in imprisoning someone for 6 years if the same post prison effect can be achieved with a 3 year confinement.
Drastically reduce the overall prison cost and get huge sums into post prison monitering and social integration.