Pressures on prison system keep mounting

Whereas the whole variety of folks in jail was 1% down on the earlier yr (largely attributable to the truth that practically 15,000 prisoners have been launched early within the earlier 12 months), the unrelenting strain on the system is evident from nearly each main dataset. The important thing strain factors are:

There have been 18,478 first receptions into jail between April and June 2024, an increase of 6 per cent on the identical interval in 2023.
There have been a staggering 9,782 licenced remembers within the second quarter of this yr, a 44% improve on 2023.
The remand jail inhabitants stays at report excessive ranges, there have been 17,662 folks on remand in jail on the thirtieth of September. One of many new components driving the rise within the remand inhabitants is the variety of folks on remand for public order offences related to the general public dysfunction that occurred in several components of the nation in late July/early August.
One other issue which is able to improve the jail inhabitants is the 64,625 adjudication outcomes between April and June this yr. This determine is 30% larger than final yr and extra days have been awarded as punishment on 1,797 events a large 80 per cent rise in comparison with 2023.

Lengthy sentences

As most readers can be properly conscious one of many primary components driving the continued rise in our jail inhabitants is the truth that we now ship many extra folks to jail for for much longer durations of time. On the thirtieth September, there have been 8501 unreleased prisoners serving indeterminate sentences (life sentences and IPPs). There have been additionally 8467 prisoners serving prolonged determinate sentences who served the overwhelming majority of their sentence in jail (with a further prolonged interval of licence in the neighborhood on launch).

The probation caseload

As at 30 June 2024, there have been 238,646 offenders supervised by the Probation Service in England and Wales. This has remained broadly secure over the past yr, growing by simply 0.2% in comparison with 30 June 2023 and, extra just lately, lowering by 0.1% in comparison with 31 March 2024.

Between the top of June 2023 and the top of June 2024, courtroom order caseload decreased by 2% from 109,133 to 106,422, with the variety of offenders on a group order (CO) lowering by 7% and people on a suspended sentence order with necessities (SSO) growing by 4%.

The whole caseload of offenders supervised earlier than or after launch from jail on the finish of June 2024 was 136,689, representing a rise of two% in comparison with the top of June 2023.

Supervision necessities

Maybe essentially the most fascinating a part of the probation statistics are some large will increase within the the variety of necessities connected to each group orders and suspended sentence supervision orders:

General, between April and June 2024, 26,067 necessities have been began underneath COs and 17,440 underneath SSOs, representing a rise of 8% and 21% respectively in comparison with the identical interval within the earlier yr.

Within the newest quarter, will increase have been seen throughout most requirement sorts underneath COs and SSOs. Moreover, rehabilitation stays the most typical requirement included inside a CO and SSO. In comparison with the identical quarter a yr in the past, the variety of rehabilitation necessities began underneath COs rose by 11% to 11,773 and rose by 21% to 7,894 underneath SSOs.

Underneath COs, a few of the most notable adjustments in necessities commenced between April and June 2024 in comparison with the identical quarter in 2023 have been:

psychological well being remedy (MHTR) growing by 39% to 705
drug rehabilitation (DRR) growing by 23% to 1,265
alcohol abstinence and monitoring (AAMR) growing by 14% to 888
digital monitoring lowering by 25% to 631

Underneath SSOs, a few of the most notable adjustments in necessities commenced between April and June 2024 in comparison with the identical quarter in 2023 have been:

psychological well being remedy (MHTR) growing by 80% to 465
exclusion growing by 51% to 149
alcohol abstinence and monitoring (AAMR) growing by 40% to 581
drug rehabilitation (DRR) growing by 25% to 822.

The statisticians attribute this improve in MHTRs to a scaling up of the supply to condemn to this requirement throughout the felony courts of England. 

In addition they conclude that the decline in digital monitoring necessities is prone to be related to the continued mandating of home abuse and safeguarding enquiries in all circumstances the place electronically monitored curfews are proposed. This coverage mandates that electronically monitored curfews shouldn’t be really helpful to the courts until these enquiries have been made first, and this requirement has doubtless led to the noticed lower within the general variety of electronically monitored curfews issued.

After all, when taking a look at these probation statistics, it is very important do not forget that the probation “reset” launched due to the mixed pressures of persistent under-staffing and a surge within the variety of prisoners launched early on licence implies that most low threat folks supervised by the probation service will obtain a lot much less contact from their probation officers as soon as the preliminary interval of supervision has handed.

Due to Andy Aitchison for form permission to make use of the header picture on this publish. You possibly can see Andy’s work right here