1. Day-to-day spending on prisons fell by 21% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2015/16.
Extra money was pumped into the prison system, after a riot in Birmingham prison brought public attention to problems with the system. The 2016 Autumn Statement announced £291m over three years.
But spending is still lower than it was eight years ago. In 2017/18, around £3.2bn was spent on prisons; 13% less in real terms than in 2009/10.
2. The size of the prison population has not changed very much.
On 30 June 2018, there were 82,773 prisoners in England and Wales compared with 83,391 on 30 June 2009.
Prisoners are mostly male. The prison population is consistently around 95% male.
There are fewer young people in custody. Between June 2010 and June 2018, the number of under-18s in young offender institutions more than halved from 1,661 to 642 (all male). While there has been a fall in youth crime, the proportion of young people being held for violent offences is growing.
3. But the prison population is getting older, and harder to deal with.
Since 2016 there has been a 16% rise in the number of people in prison aged 70 and over. This means there is growing demand for care in prisons.
A large share of the prison population has a mental illness. The data is incomplete, but estimates range between 23% and 37% of prisoners with a mental health problem. This may be higher than the prevalence of mental illness in the general population – estimated to be 23% in 2007.
New drugs like ‘spice’ – which can induce psychosis and aggression – are also putting pressure on prisons. They are also very prevalent. In 2017/18, 10.1% of mandatory drug tests were positive for the use of new psychoactive substances, compared with 10.3% positive drug test for all other drugs.
4. Private prisons house nearly 20% of the prison population.
There are only 14 ‘private prisons’ (operated by private companies on behalf of the state), compared with 122 ‘public’ prisons (run directly by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service) – but they tend to be larger.
Since 2009/10, 20 prisons have closed or merged and five new prisons have opened. Only one new prison has been initiative and built since 2009/10: Berwyn in North Wales was announced in 2013 and began to receive prisoners in February 2017.
But the overall capacity of the prison system is roughly the same. This is due to the larger size of the new prisons.
5. The number of prison officers dropped by a quarter between 2009/10 and 2013/14.
In 2013/14 alone, prison officer numbers (FTE) fell by 15% (3,250 officers) – equalling the reductions seen in total over the previous four years.
But recently the number has risen. Since March 2017, the number of prison officers has risen by 3,205, a 17% increase. In June 2018, there were 21,608 FTE prison officers in public prisons.
6. In June 2018, a third of prison officers had less than two years' experience, compared with 7% in March 2010.
Despite improved recruitment, retention of prison officers is weak and turnover is high. In 2016/17, 4,933 new prison officers joined the prison service, while 2,088 left.
Other parts of the prison workforce have continued to shrink. The number of prison managers has fallen from 1,434 in March 2010 to 905 in June 2018 (a 37% decrease).
Prison officers are starting to see their pay rise. Pay was frozen between 2011/12 and 2012/13, and increases were subsequently capped at 1% a year. But prison officers received a 1.7% pay rise for the 2017/18 financial year – and have been awarded a 2.75% increase for 2018/19.
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