Crisis in the Prison System of England and Wales

The essay discusses the crisis in the prison system of England and Wales, its causes, issues, and solutions. It highlights the challenges faced by the government, such as overcrowding, violence, lack of staff, and poor living conditions. The essay also suggests solutions, such as developing cognitive behavioral communities in prison and building new prisons. The Prison Estate Transformation Programme and White Paper over Prison safety reform are also discussed.

JUSTICE SYSTEM

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFRENCES ................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The criminal justice system is that network of concerned government authority and
private agencies having intention to handle accused and convict criminals in the society. This
approach contains several pillars including law, forensic services, enforcement , judiciary,
corrections and legal administrative work. The above stated pillars helps in securing justice
within particular case that is of criminal nature. As per this system various elements of justice
has been identified which is used in preparing proper legal structure helping in enhancing
judicial system of particular country. Also this system evolve as per requirement of society and
criminal activities taking place within it but basic principles remains same. Scope of criminal
justice is wider as it helps in providing justice to all citizens living within country. Nature is
dynamic as it helps in securing justice in criminal matters. In this essay things covered is based
upon prison code of conduct of England and Wales and why it is under crisis.
MAIN BODY
The prison system in England and Wales is considered to be in crisis.
Why is it in crisis:
The prison system in England and Wales is in crisis due to self harm within the prisons has
reached to its record high and violence has increased within past 12 months. The National Public
service has been struggling for providing adequate rehabilitation and community supervision
services to offenders post-release with staff shortage which means most of the staff are not able
to meet their weekly targets of caseload. Also lack of prison management has created lot of
problems. There has been drastic impairment within in standards of prison system since 2009/10.
This has made increase within deaths, violence, self harm, poor behaviour and drugs usage. Also
effort in relation to rehabilitation of prisoner reduced that has taken place due to lack of prison
management(Carroll, 2021). Further, reduction in number of prisoner officer between 2009/10
and 2015/16. It made disappointment and worrying results to be attained in relation to prison
system which made government take action against it. Despite of efforts made by government
no changes were made within the condition of prison system. As, they remain below 2009/10
levels ad prison continue to decrease the size of prison population is due to decline in coming
years but investing on prisons and the size of prison officer both remains 2009/10 levels and

prison performance continues deteriorate. The size of prison population has also been increasing
at high rate which has caused problems in relation to improvement in prison. The distance
between spending and demand in 2023/24 will be great if the Johnson government implements
its proposals over police number, crown and prosecution services related to it. In the data
management related to prisoners, there are 117 prisons in England and Wales Her Majesty's
Prison and Probation Service run most of the court that is 104 while three private companies
operate by public sector and tend to be larger. The total number of prisons in Wales and England
fell from 137 in 2009/10 to 117 in 2018/19. The more prisons are introduced by the government
is leading to establish specific operations which are good number of figures for the government.
The total holding size of prisons that has down only somewhat from 87090 in March 2011 to
86473 in March 2019. Government of the concerned country is doing formal planning to
increase capacity of prison which will bring a systematic development in the area of law. The
Berwyn prison has started in 2017 and is an brand brand-new prison which started in the year
2010. After two years, the prison of the country were 40% empty because of late infrastructure
practices along with development of workshops and 2100 prisoners is the new capacity of
England prisoners.
What particular issues are of immediate concern: In this loss of experience of prision
staff, over crowding and subsequent growth in violence against both prisoner and staff which has
to be blamed for forcing that has been used 49,111 times in England and Wales in the 12 months
before the Covid pandemic began. Also the used of force against inmates has doubled over past
decates and amid continuing with concerns upon high level of violence and disorder in prison.
As, per data obtained within Freedom of Information act force was used 59.1 timed per 100
inmates in the year 2019. This shows that main reason for prison crises is based upon various
kinds of factors causing imbalance within prison. If the Prison Estate Transformation
Programme is taken into consideration, the Cameron government promised to create 10000 new
prisons placed. In this plan, there are two new prisons of Glen Parva, Hindley, Rochester and
Wellingborough. This made development of new prison done in May 2019 and will be open in
2021. The previous HMP Glen Parva has been impacted in preparation over construction in
summer 2020 which make work fulfil by summer 2023. In July 2017, it was decided that the
closers of both Hindley and Rochester prisons has been postponed. Cells are site that has to be
kept in use for now and utilize in forward(Burman, 2019). Cell at these sits is required to be

renovated as its is element of straight forward- planning for estate. In 2019 September, planning
permission which has been provided upon building the new 1017 place prison(Brown, 2018).
The House of Commons Justice Committee has been conducted which has helped developing
program making progress in relation to prisons development program. This lead towards
development of difficulties that has been obtained through focusing upon population pressure
and receipt from sale of existing sites do not cover the cost of building new prisons. In 2017/18
payroll has been accounted for 39% of spending on prisons which was reduced in the year
2012/13. In March 2017 and March 2019 financial year were 22630 and 3-5 prison officer were
their in public prison in England and Wales. The government has conformably achieved its target
which has been set three years ago and recruited 2,500 additional prison officers hired. This
recovery was partially able to fulfil the gap that has been created between the year 2009/10 and
2014/15. Though new officer were appointed but the prison officer number remain same as it
was seven years ago and the present workforce lacks experience. In the March 2019, 50% of
prison officer had less than five years of experience. The above analysis and stats shows that
impact of change in staff composition which has taken place due to several number of prison
officer leaving every year and many of them had service for more then five years. It has been
observed that 1500 prison officer left before there age of retirement within early departure
schemes between March 2013 and March 2014. The average length of service staff who left
through these scheme ranged from 17.2 years to 24.5 years over the period. The loss of
experience staff damages quality of support and supervision within prisons.
What can be done to reduce or solve these issues
Pison culture and environment are essential to public health and safety. While much of
the policy debate and public attention of prisons focuses on private facilities, roughly 83 percent
of the more than 1,600 U.S. facilities are owned and operated by states. This suggest that states
are an essential unit of analysis in understanding the far-reaching effects of imprisonment and the
site of potential solutions. Policy change within institutions has to begin at the state level through
the departments of corrections. For example, California has rebranded their state corrections
division and renamed it the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. For many,
these are not only name changes but shifts in policy and practice. In this chapter, we rethink the
treatment environment of the prison by highlighting strategies for developing cognitive
behavioral communities in prison—immersive cognitive communities. This new approach

promotes new ways of thinking and behaving for both incarcerated persons and correctional
staff. Behavior change requires changing thinking patterns and cognitive behavioral therapy
(CBT) is an evidence-based strategy that can be utilized in the prison setting. We focus on short-,
medium-, and long-term recommendations to begin implementing this model and initiate reforms
for the organizational structure of prisons.
The analysis of the evolution of Prison system in England and Wales explains about
challenges that has been faced by government of United Kingdom. There are certain major issues
which exists within prison system of England and Wales that is over crowding and long term
isolation with poor living conditions leading towards hallucinations, depression, psychological
regression and even cognitive dysfunction(Boppre, 2018). The United Kingdom’s prison system
has been facing deep crisis as per the report which has been published by the Council of
Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture. The following targeted visit the country in
May 2019. Delegation of CPT has recovered in its three male prison visit that the prisoners were
violent, safety was not there and the prisons were overcrowded. This has been caused due to long
period of segregation. The CPT report that level of inter prisoners violence, prisoner on staff
assaults and staff on prisoner violence reaching the record heights and none of the prisoners visit
is considered to be safe. Also measuring designed to prevent the rising violence that has not been
effective in nature. Though it has helped in reducing “preventive strikes” which is to be done by
prison staff on complaint inmates at some point can proven to be threat. In the prison's rules and
regulations, the drug test were developed by professional doctors that effectively helps in
management of time scale. It is important for the country to take into consideration, various
parameters of drug test in order to increase the chances of conviction. The prisoner's should also
gain a major CPT approach as its omni present approach in order to maintain record of the drug's
and their consumption by the prisoners
In this three adult male prisons visit it was marked within the report that prisoner were
suffering from mental health disorders which has caused increase in violence that has self
harmed themselves in past years. Also persons suffering from server mental disorder has not
been taken to proper hospital but were treated in a unit or dispensary where proper facilities were
not there. The report also marked out that staff of the prions working under immense pressure
and also circumstances were challenging for them. Despite of recruitment drive since 2016
retention of staff has been serious issue and the staff directly contacting prisoner were not quality

staff. Further, it is noted in the CPT report that prison system in England and Wales has suffered
from chronic over crowding. The population has been double since 1990 and almost all adult
prisoners presently facing the same issue. Also it was suggested within the report that solution
regarding such issue can be solved by making Victorian era principles and modern principle of
prison system go hand in hand. The reduction in population can be achieved through change in
criminal law, police and practices related to crime. CPT noted that general increase in violence
through juvenile detention facilitates physical force. As per the report the delegation findings
part of prison system is required to ensure that safe custody should be provided to prisoners
which are juvenile in nature. This report has been proven to be one of the most important factor
in relation to marking out problems of prison system in United Kingdom.
There are various factors that has been contributing over deterioration in living conditions
within England and Wales(Bootsman, 2019). The prison estimation is more then 100 prions in
England and Wales. In this prion there are town centres and other areas. These prisons were
formed in last 20 years and some were formed in mid of 20th century. It has been estimated that
prison population is expected to increase by 3200 placed until March 2023. Growing population
combined with old and often poorly designed buildings is putting considerable pressure on the
system. In various cases it is observed that maintenance contracts has negatively impacted living
conditions of prisoner and was contracted to private contractors. The last information shows that
there were thousands of outstanding issues in June 2018. Also it has been argued that private
contractors has failed to provide adequate service. This has show the impact of various factors
upon maintenance of prions and has marked out that prisoner's conditions should be improved by
providing them basic facilities in better and effective manner. In order to improve these
conditions various aspects is required to be understood in more effective manner. Many prisons
across England and Wales are struggling has been struggling from these problems of
overcrowding which has caused high level of violence, easy access to drugs and squalid
physical conditions taking place within the prions. Inspections have revealed that the situation
has reached “breaking point” in prisons in Nottingham, Exeter, Birmingham and Bedford. The
Chief Inspector of Prisons has issued “Urgent Notifications” to these prisons which require the
Ministry of Justice to take urgent action to try and rapidly improve standards. This Insight will
look at factors contributing to pressures facing the prison system and what the Government
proposes to do.

In the year 2016 White paper over Prison safety reform has been made by government.
This has been formed in order to improver physical environment which is helpful in making
prison become more effective in terms of its culture which helps in making prisoners improve
their life in more better way(Baradel, 2021). In response to this under the White paper reforms
government introduced Prison Estate Transformation Programme which has helped in building
new prisons in order to make accommodation possible over reorganizing functions of individual
persons in prison which helps in satisfying basic needs of prisoners. So far, the Government has
initiated three building projects as part of this programme. A new house-block at HM Prison
Stocken is expected to open in early 2019 and new prisons are being built on former sites in
Leicestershire and Wellingborough. However, some of the Government’s plans have stalled. Her
Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service has said that plans to redevelop prisons at Rochester and
Hindley have been put on hold as a significant rise in the prison population had prevented them
from closing the prisons. From different prisons sectors shareholders claiming is that there is a
huge crisis in England and Wales due to the presence of prison estate. In accordance of Chief
Inspector Peter Clarke of prisons that he witnessed that there is no place for this conditions in
advance nations of 21st century, while in accordance of Phil Copple, Executive director for
prisons in HM Prison and Probation Service said that “ chronic issues are considerable parts of
the estate with its living conditions”. While visiting in Liverpool prisons the condition of this
prison is shocking. In accordance of this condition this Prison it become 10th worst prison of the
country. They are required to be more effective in nature and should be able to improve prison
system by doing proper investment within it. The issues ca only be solve when experience is
involved within the management. It make prison management within England and Wales
improved in more effective way. Also this made prison function in proper manner through
improving facilities within it. This leads prisons of England and Wales deal with crises to an
extent only. Through such reforms and development government has controlled crises in more
effective manner.
What can be done to reduce or solve these issues there: It can be observed from these
discussions that there are various aspects which is required to be improved within the United
Kingdom regarding its prison system. Since, government has been spending less spending over
government prisons which has made its conditions degraded causing prisoner treated badly
within the prison. The continuous evolution of prison system in England and Wales has been

reduced which made government take decision of giving prison contract to private companies.
This has not helped in improvement but has reduced the health and security standards within
prison. Also food and hygiene has been impacted negatively despite of policies build by
government(Aji, 2019). Then in relation staff and employees of jail decline taken place which
has caused scarcity within the quality of staff resulting in increasing less experienced staff within
jails. It has caused lot of problems in managing activities within jail. It has been observed that
problems in relation over prison system has not been solved till present date which has caused
crisis occurred within United Kingdom regarding its prison system. Over population become
another problem causing jails become over crowded which has made management collapsed and
thus crises has taken place. This impacted the goodwill of government as they failed to achieve
there goals which has bee set by them in relation to welfare of prison system.
CONCLUSION
Justice system is that kind of system which has been formed in order to makes basic
needs of prisoner fulfilled. This system covers various aspects helping in making justice served
in its real sense. It has been improving judges capability to serve justice in relation to both civil
and criminal cases. In this essay crisis in relation to justice system has been presented through
various analysis in relation to statistics. The problems in relation to evolution of prison and its
facilities has been discussed with the initiatives taken by government for improving or dealing
upon those problems.

REFRENCES
Books and Journals