By Rebecca Gascoigne
With 88,000 prisoners, enough to fill Wembley Stadium, England and Wales possesses the highest prison population in Western Europe. Not only is it currently the highest, but it is set to swell beyond 100,000 by 2029.
The prison estate itself is unable to withstand the heavy influx. It is operating at 98.9% capacity so is severely overcrowded, heavily compromising prison conditions and the health and wellbeing of those detained.
In response, the Government initiated an early release scheme in September 2024. This meant that eligible prisoners could be released after serving 40% of their prison sentence, as opposed to 50%, with the remainder of the sentence to be served in the community.
The following month, the Ministry of Justice commissioned the Independent Sentencing Review tasked with reforming the sentencing framework to ensure England and Wales is ‘never again in a position where the country has more prisoners than prison places, and the government is forced to rely on the emergency release of prisoners.’
INQUEST submitted expert evidence to the review which highlighted clear links between individual deaths and the use of recall, short sentences, and post-custody supervision.
For example, Mark Culverhouse was a 29 year old who was recalled to prison, despite having no time left to serve on his license. Though he should have been released immediately, this did not happen because there were no administrative staff working in the prison over the Easter bank holiday. He ended up taking his own life in prison in 2019. The jury found that Mark had been unlawfully detained and that this was clearly linked to his death.
Two years later, 58 year old Floyd Caruthers was sentenced to prison for just 66 days for breaching an Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction. The judge at his sentencing said there was “no evidence of any criminality”. In prison, Floyd was found to have an infected heart valve and died after not eating for four days and receiving no medical attention.
Further evidence drew attention to how continued investment into the growth of the prison estate leads to harm and death, because prisons by their very nature are dehumanising environments. This is exemplified by the fact that 2024 saw the highest rate and number of self-harm incidents in prison since records began in 2004.
INQUEST’s main recommendation called on the Government to commit to a reduction in the prison population and increase investment in welfare, health, housing, education and social care to prevent people going (or returning) to prison in the first place.
At the end of May, the Independent Sentencing Review published its final report. The reforms they proposed focus on reducing the number of people entering prison and progressing individuals through the system more quickly, rather than focusing on reducing the overall length of prison sentences. If implemented, it estimates a reduction of almost 10,000 in the prison population.
The review places great emphasis on increasing the use of community sentencing as a solution to reducing the prison population. In this vein, it recommended increasing the maximum length of a suspended sentence to three years and to not use custodial sentences of less than 12 months other than in exceptional circumstances.
The push for community sentencing represents the political shift to extend punishment beyond the confines of prison walls and into the community. As the review itself said, one of its main aims was to ‘make greater use of punishment outside of prison'.
In line with this vision, the review proposed a robust package of intensive technology-centred community supervision comprising of electronically monitored curfews, GPS tracking and mobile-enabled biometric check-ins. These recommendations do not consider how these measures will affect those released back into the community, a group especially vulnerable to suicide.
INQUEST’s evidence highlighted major concerns around the increased self-inflicted death rate of those on license, with the rate of those on post-release supervision being 15 times higher than that of the general population.
The review also made unprecedented recommendations, such as allowing for prisoners on determinate sentences who demonstrate ‘good behaviour’ to be released after serving 30% of their sentence and those who demonstrate ‘bad behaviour’ to potentially serve more of their sentence in custody.
It also recommended the continuation of a trial to chemically castrate people imprisoned for sexual offences. While the former recommendation represents an extension of punitive logic to those who have already been imprisoned, the latter is clearly a breach of human rights.
While the review does consider the distinct impact of imprisonment on women, and people with substance misuse, mental ill health and neurodivergent people, ultimately, it fails to discuss the importance of structural change or address how people enter into the criminal justice system, such as poverty and inequality.
The lack of exploration of how to tackle the root causes of social inequalities through a transformative approach to social justice ultimately means that routes into the criminal justice system remain unchallenged.
The Independent Sentencing Review Is Misguided In Its Attempt To Solve The Prison Crisis
By Rebecca Gascoigne
With 88,000 prisoners, enough to fill Wembley Stadium, England and Wales possesses the highest prison population in Western Europe. Not only is it currently the highest, but it is set to swell beyond 100,000 by 2029.
The prison estate itself is unable to withstand the heavy influx. It is operating at 98.9% capacity so is severely overcrowded, heavily compromising prison conditions and the health and wellbeing of those detained.
In response, the Government initiated an early release scheme in September 2024. This meant that eligible prisoners could be released after serving 40% of their prison sentence, as opposed to 50%, with the remainder of the sentence to be served in the community.
The following month, the Ministry of Justice commissioned the Independent Sentencing Review tasked with reforming the sentencing framework to ensure England and Wales is ‘never again in a position where the country has more prisoners than prison places, and the government is forced to rely on the emergency release of prisoners.’
INQUEST submitted expert evidence to the review which highlighted clear links between individual deaths and the use of recall, short sentences, and post-custody supervision.
For example, Mark Culverhouse was a 29 year old who was recalled to prison, despite having no time left to serve on his license. Though he should have been released immediately, this did not happen because there were no administrative staff working in the prison over the Easter bank holiday. He ended up taking his own life in prison in 2019. The jury found that Mark had been unlawfully detained and that this was clearly linked to his death.
Two years later, 58 year old Floyd Caruthers was sentenced to prison for just 66 days for breaching an Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction. The judge at his sentencing said there was “no evidence of any criminality”. In prison, Floyd was found to have an infected heart valve and died after not eating for four days and receiving no medical attention.
Further evidence drew attention to how continued investment into the growth of the prison estate leads to harm and death, because prisons by their very nature are dehumanising environments. This is exemplified by the fact that 2024 saw the highest rate and number of self-harm incidents in prison since records began in 2004.
INQUEST’s main recommendation called on the Government to commit to a reduction in the prison population and increase investment in welfare, health, housing, education and social care to prevent people going (or returning) to prison in the first place.
At the end of May, the Independent Sentencing Review published its final report. The reforms they proposed focus on reducing the number of people entering prison and progressing individuals through the system more quickly, rather than focusing on reducing the overall length of prison sentences. If implemented, it estimates a reduction of almost 10,000 in the prison population.
The review places great emphasis on increasing the use of community sentencing as a solution to reducing the prison population. In this vein, it recommended increasing the maximum length of a suspended sentence to three years and to not use custodial sentences of less than 12 months other than in exceptional circumstances.
The push for community sentencing represents the political shift to extend punishment beyond the confines of prison walls and into the community. As the review itself said, one of its main aims was to ‘make greater use of punishment outside of prison'.
In line with this vision, the review proposed a robust package of intensive technology-centred community supervision comprising of electronically monitored curfews, GPS tracking and mobile-enabled biometric check-ins. These recommendations do not consider how these measures will affect those released back into the community, a group especially vulnerable to suicide.
INQUEST’s evidence highlighted major concerns around the increased self-inflicted death rate of those on license, with the rate of those on post-release supervision being 15 times higher than that of the general population.
The review also made unprecedented recommendations, such as allowing for prisoners on determinate sentences who demonstrate ‘good behaviour’ to be released after serving 30% of their sentence and those who demonstrate ‘bad behaviour’ to potentially serve more of their sentence in custody.
It also recommended the continuation of a trial to chemically castrate people imprisoned for sexual offences. While the former recommendation represents an extension of punitive logic to those who have already been imprisoned, the latter is clearly a breach of human rights.
While the review does consider the distinct impact of imprisonment on women, and people with substance misuse, mental ill health and neurodivergent people, ultimately, it fails to discuss the importance of structural change or address how people enter into the criminal justice system, such as poverty and inequality.
The lack of exploration of how to tackle the root causes of social inequalities through a transformative approach to social justice ultimately means that routes into the criminal justice system remain unchallenged.
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