The UK may have a new prime minister, but the problem of prison overcrowding in England and Wales remains. Andy Burnham recently clarified the details of the Sentencing Act 2026, which aims to release prisoners earlier than usual.

Like other PMs before him, Burnham faces a difficult choice between addressing the overcrowded and chaotic prison environment, and reassuring the rightfully distressed victims and their families.

The prison estate in England and Wales is vastly overcrowded. The most recent data shows a population of 86,495 prisoners – the estate can safely hold 81,681. The population increase has been building since the late 1990s. It reduced slightly during the pandemic, but has grown every year since 2023 back to pre-pandemic levels. This has been attributed to increases in sentencing lengths and the creation of new offences as a result of specific concerns or public campaigns.

The harm caused by overcrowding is profound and pronounced. Violence, self-harm and suicide are still significantly high in prisons, with 70,632 self-harm incidents, 30,820 assaults between prisoners and 9,833 assaults on staff in the last year.

With no clear plan to manage how sentence lengths have........

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