Prison overcrowding - some facts and figures
01 January 1991
Prison overcrowding - some facts and figures
bacdoc June=1992
NACRO Briefing, 22 June 1992
On 31 March 1992 the population of prisons in England and Wales was 45,864.
The certified normal accommodation of the prison system (ie the number of
prisoners the system is designed to accommodate without overcrowding) was
45,469. Overall, therefore, the system was just 1% overcrowded.
However, because overcrowding is concentrated in local prisons, these types
of establishment are much more overcrowded than the average. On the same
date local prisons, which had 11,902 places, held 15,456 prisoners, making
them 30% overcrowded. 11 prisons were more than 50% overcrowded. The 20
most overcrowded prisons were:
Certified normal Number of Percentage
accommodation prisoners overcrowded
Gloucester 107 195 82%
Chelmsford 232 392 69%
Birmingham 567 925 63%
Durham 579 939 62%
Leicester 200 322 61%
Exeter 293 471 61%
Low Newton 199 315 58%
Shrewsbury 168 264 57%
Canterbury 183 281 54%
Dorchester 139 213 53%
Leeds 627 944 51%
Hull 281 417 48%
Wormwood Scrubs 657 971 48%
Brixton 547 807 48%
Bedford 170 250 47%
Lincoln 392 576 47%
Oxford 121 175 45%
Reading 182 255 40%
Liverpool 931 1261 35%
Swansea 213 284 33%
In addition 1,882 remanded or sentenced prisoners were being held in police
or court cells instead of penal establishments on that date. If they had
been accommodated within the prison system, the degree of overcrowding of
local prisons would have been significantly greater. The total prison
population, including those in police cells, was 47,746, amounting to 5%
more prisoners than there were places in penal establishments.
On 2 April 1992, 9,160 prisoners were held two to a cell designed for one
person and 1,272 prisoners were held three to a cell designed for one.
Comparison with 1991
On 31 March 1991 the population of prisons in England and Wales was 45,106
and a further 767 remanded or sentenced prisoners were held in police and
court cells. The total prison population was therefore 45,873, compared
with 47,746 on 31 March this year - a rise of 1,873.
On 31 March 1991 the certified normal accommodation of the prison system
was 43,262 compared with 45,469 on 31 March this year. Nine prisons were
50% or more overcrowded on 31 March 1991 compared with eleven on 31 March
1992.
Projections of the Prison Population
The official projections of the prison population in the year 2000 are
contained in Home Office Statistical Bulletin 10/92, 'Projections of Long
Term Trends in the Prison Population to 2000', published in May 1992. The
total prison population is projected to increase to 57,500 by the year
2000, an increase of 11,600 from the average 1991 prison population of
45,900.
NACRO, 169 Clapham Road, London SW9 0PU.