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Although three new prisons have opened in the past four years – adding approximately 5,000 more places – further expansion to existing prisons has been delayed by a major supplier going into administration, according to the Prison Reform Trust.<\/p>\n
Pia Sinha of the Prison Reform Trust told BBC Verify: “Successive governments have found it difficult to increase prison capacity because new prisons take years to plan and build, often facing planning hurdles and local opposition.”<\/p>\n
The Labour government has pledged to build 14,000 new prison places by 2031. The MoJ told BBC Verify that it had delivered about 3,200 places as of July.<\/p>\n
However, it has not said how many prison cells have been taken out of use so we cannot say whether there has been a net gain or loss of spaces.<\/p>\n
Analysts argue that without a major change in thinking about the appropriateness of prison as punishment, or a significant long-term increase in prison building, the system in England and Wales will remain close to capacity.<\/p>\n
And that means governments will continue to be under pressure to implement early release schemes to avert a capacity crisis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n