The review

The government sets out the rationale for the review by saying that the prison system faces ongoing and future challenges that are not widely understood, shaped by pressures across capacity, safety and decency, security and rehabilitation, as well as the age, condition and configuration of the prison estate.

It claims that recent investment and action have mitigated some pressures, but says that the underlying risks remain structural and long-term in nature. While it is true that the early release scheme and the prison building programme have reduced the overall population slightly (there were 85,761 people in prison on Monday compared to 87,343 when this Government came into power), regimes remain impoverished with most establishments struggling with drugs, violence and a lack of work and education provision.

The independent review is intended to “provide a strategic, risk-based assessment of the current, emerging and future risks and opportunities facing the prison system“.

It will consider a broad range of challenges, including:

• Security risks, including drugs, drones, escapes and corruption, as well as emerging threats such as cyber risks
• Safety and decency, including violence, self-harm, crowding and the condition of the physical estate
• Capacity pressures, including maintaining sufficient prison places and managing crowding
• Workforce challenges, including capability, non-effective staffing levels, sickness absence and attrition 

The review will also consider how wider factors, including socio-economic and environmental change, technological progress, sentencing trends and an increasingly complex prison population, are compounding these pressures.

There is also a focus on improvements with the review also expected to “identify practical and deliverable options for reform to improve the resilience, performance and effectiveness of prisons”. It is also tasked with building a robust evidence base to support long-term decision-making and future investment.

Inevitably, it will also seek to “identify efficiencies” to increase the sustainability of the prison system.

The review has quite a broad remit and will:

“take account of the wider system in which prisons operate, including the role of private operators, government departments and partner organisations, and will build on existing evidence and independent reviews. It will also consider learnings from international examples of good practice.”

There have already been a number of prison-focused reviews under this Government including:

• The Release in Error Independent Review,
• The Prison Capacity Review, and 
• Jonathan Hall KC’s independent reviews of Terrorism in Prisons and Separation Centres.

These are in addition to the two major reviews: the Independent Sentencing and Criminal Courts Reviews. 

The review focuses solely on adult prisons and does not include other places of detention and is not expected to develop detailed delivery plans for the future of the prison estate.

Unsurprisingly, the Terms of Reference are explicit in saying there will be no new funding; to use the official language:

“All costs within this Spending Review must be absorbed within MoJ’s budget. Future costs must be absorbable within the MoJ’s likely future budget in line with Spending Review outcomes. The review will also seek to identify efficiencies to increase the sustainability of the prison system.”

Timescale

As the Government heads into its third year in power, it seems keen to try to expedite policy changes and the review is expected to report to the Lord Chancellor/Minister of Justice by December this year.

Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the header image in this post. You can see Andy’s work here