UK Government to Build Four New Prisons to Ease Overcrowding

The UK government has unveiled plans to construct four new prisons by 2031 in an effort to address the growing overcrowding crisis that led to the early release of hundreds of inmates this year. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood presented the 10-year plan, which aims to ensure there is always enough space in prisons for dangerous offenders, as the prison population in England and Wales continues to rise.

The new prisons will contribute 6,500 additional spaces, part of a broader effort to create 14,000 more spaces over the next seven years. This initiative is part of a programme initiated by the previous Conservative government to add 20,000 new spaces, although the cost of the project has now more than doubled, with estimates reaching £10.1 billion ($12.8 billion), up from the original budget.

Mahmood emphasized that the prisons will be designated as “sites of national importance” to expedite construction, but she acknowledged that these measures alone would not be sufficient. “We will build, but the sad situation here is we cannot build enough to keep up with the pace of demand, which is rising very, very quickly,” she told Times Radio.

She also criticized the previous Conservative administration for failing to fulfill its prison expansion plans, claiming that less than a third of the 20,000 spaces they had promised were completed. Mahmood stated, “The last government pretended they could send people away for longer without building the prisons they promised. They left our prisons in crisis, on the edge of collapse.”

According to official data, as of Monday, there were 86,089 prisoners in England and Wales, with capacity for 88,822. In response to the overcrowding, Mahmood announced emergency measures earlier this year, releasing inmates early to avoid a collapse of the prison system when it was found there were only 700 spaces left in men’s jails. However, she vowed to avoid resorting to such measures in the future, telling Sky News, “I don’t want to be in a position where we ever do emergency release of the kind that we’ve had to do.”