This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.
Just north of central London, behind high brick walls walls, there’s a whitewashed building with bars on its windows. It’s one of Britain’s most dangerous jails — Pentonville Prison — and is also one of the most crowded.
It costs around $69 million a year to operate. With four inmates per every one guard, staff are overextended. They say overcrowding is leading to an increase in self-harm and violence. Michael is here for drug offenses. We’re not using his full name for safety reasons.
“It’s hard to rehabilitate yourself in a place where you’ve got gang violence, postcode wars, drug violence, money wars,” he said. “If you’ve got beef, there’s violence; there are drugs here; people collapsing here; and the staff, they’re overstretched.”
Britain’s prisons are at breaking point, with overcrowding, staff shortages and funding cuts making the situation worse. Now, the government is releasing prisoners early to relieve the pressure.
Employees at Pentonville spoke to the difficulties they’re experiencing. A prison officer spoke to us on the condition that we keep her identity anonymous. “You worry about, you know, opening the door in the morning and making sure that they’re alive,” she said.
The prison population in England and Wales is now more than 88,000, nearly double what it was 30 years ago. One major factor is longer sentences — in 2023, the average prison sentence was 25% longer than it was in 2012. For crimes like robbery, sentences have increased by as much as 36%.
Mark Fairhurst is the national chairman of the U.K.’s Prison Officers’ Association, or POA. British prisons have suffered because of a lack of investment, he said.
“Many of our inner-city prisons are Victorian prisons, and they’ve never been modernized,” said Fairhurst. “We want a modern prison service. We don’t want prisoners sharing cells. We want separate toilet areas so they don’t have to share the toilet as they currently do, sat behind a screen. There is no dignity in that.”
Instead of putting more money into the system, the U.K. government is taking people out. In September, more than 1,700 prisoners were freed. This is part of a broader strategy that allows people to be released after serving 40% of their sentence, rather than the usual 50%.
“So all in all, by the end of the year, because of these early release schemes, we will free up 5,500 prison spaces,” added Fairhurst.
This does not apply to those convicted of sexual violence or terrorism, but critics argue it is still a short-term fix for a larger problem.
Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, thinks early releases should only be a temporary solution.
“What the government needs to do with as much urgency is to say, ‘What are your plans for the medium and long term to reduce this demand coming into prison in the first place?'” she said. “That’s what needs to be addressed, because otherwise you’re just buying yourself a little bit of time, and by next year, next summer, those spaces will fill up again.”
The government has announced plans to increase prison capacity by 9,000 spaces by 2028, but the prison population is projected to rise by 19,000 in that same period, leaving a significant gap. Plus, non-essential maintenance work in prisons has stopped due to a lack of funding, and some prisoners are being kept in inadequate conditions, like overcrowded cells with broken facilities.
With about 12% of the U.K.’s prisoners housed in private prisons, would more private money in the system help fund it? Mark Fairhurst from the POA doesn’t think so.
“The problem with private sector prisons is they run their prisons for profit, so inevitably, they will have fewer staff on lower wages, and they will increase the profits for their shareholders. If the state incarcerates you, the state should look after you.”
And, according to the U.K.’s chief inspector of prisons, some people have nowhere to go when they are released — a crucial part of stopping ex-offenders becoming homeless. The government has pledged reforms, but with resources stretched thin, critics warn the system is teetering on the brink.
