During the Late 1980s and early 1990s the prison population began to fluctuate slightly, with a decrease in the prison population. This was felt to be a result of the introduction of new laws. Windlesham (1993) states that in 1987 the prison population was reduced by approximately 3,000 individuals as a result of a decision by Douglas Hurd, the then Home Secretary, to introduce half remission for Prisoners, serving sentences of twelve months or less. The prison population also fell by approximately 6,000 individuals during the early 1990s. This was a result of the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1991 which included reforms to sentencing and parole decisions. However, this decline was short-lived. During 1994, the number of prisoners began rising at extraordinary rates, with a further 600 individuals being sentenced to imprisonment a month by the second half of the year. (Muncie and McLaughlin 2001:212)
These numbers continued to rise throughout the 1990s and by the start of the new century had increased to the highest numbers ever seen in Britain. In a report for the Home Office, Elkins and Olagundoye (2001) reviewed the number of individuals within the prison system and found that the average prison population in 2000 was 64,600. They also found that between 1999 and 2000, the average female population had increased by three percent reaching its highest level since 1901. Finally they found that the number of prisoners in England and Wales, expressed as a rate per 100,000 of the population, was the second highest in Western Europe (Elkin and Olagundoye 2001:1)
Inevitably, the rise in the prison population creates other problems for the penal system. The main problem crated by the rise in the prison population is overcrowding. Prison overcrowding is principally a post-war occurrence and it follows a stable period of surplus capacity between the turn of the century and 1938. During this period the average prison population was halved from 22,000 to 11,000 which led to the closure of over twenty-five prisons. However, as mentioned earlier, since the end of the Second World War there has been a substantial rise in the prison population and even though attempts have been made to expand the prison estate, they have been insufficient in combating the problem of overcrowding within the penal system. (Cavadino and Dignan 2002:186)
The extent of overcrowding is traditionally measured with reference to a figure known as the ‘Certified Normal Accommodation’ (C.N.A). This is the number of prisoners a prison can adequately hold as determined by government appointed inspectors. However these figures are not always accurate. For example, not all accommodation included in the C.N.A figures are useable. Most prisons have rooms that are not in use due to refurbishment or because of a need for spare capacity to be used for receptions and transfers. This suggests that the figures given by the inspectors do not give a true reflection of the prison’s holding capacity. Furthermore, prisoners are not evenly spread throughout the penal system because of the different types of prisons and the corresponding restrictions on the types of inmates that are deemed suitable for a certain prison. The penal system is said to be overcrowded when the total number of prisoners exceeds the C.N.A. figures that are available across the penal estate. The government has tried to combat the problem of overcrowding by embarking on a prison building programme, which was the largest since the Victorian era, in 1982. The programme involved the construction of 21 new prisons, which contained an additional 11,285 new places. Although these measures did combat the problem of overcrowding for a while by creating a surplus of places, the rise on the prison population soon meant that there were still too few places for prisoners within the penal system. (Cavadino and Dignan 2002:186-7)
Another problem encountered by the penal system is that of order. This problem can also be seen as a creation of the rise in the prison population and overcrowding. There penal system has encountered problems of order within prisons since the introduction of imprisonment as a form of punishment. However, it has only become a major problem in the last century. The first major crisis of order and containment occurred during the 1960s. Up until this point security was not a high priority for the prison authorities. However, this changed as the prison population increased. The issue of security within prisons was highlighted by a number of highly publicised escapes which included the escape of Charlie Wilson in 1964 and Ronnie Biggs, two of the infamous train robbers. These escapes led to an inquiry into security being carried out by Lord Mountbatten in 1966. One of the main recommendations to be adopted by the prison authorities was the categorisation of prisoners according to their security risks. Mountbatten also recommended that there should be different types of prisons to accommodate high risk and low risk prisoners. This policy is still used today and as mentioned earlier, it can be a contributory factor to the problem of overcrowding. (Cavadino and Dignan 2002:181)
During the 1980s, the problem of containment was not a high priority, as the attention turned to the problem of riots. There were a number of small low key disturbances within the prison system in the late 1980s. However the pivotal moment came when a twenty-five day riot broke out in 1990 at Strangeways Prison. This riot also led to other disturbances in prisons across the country. The Government, realise that the prison system was in a state of crisis, set up an inquiry led by Lord Justice Woolf. His report ‘Prison disturbances April 1990’ was published in 1991 and became the backbone of major penal reform. Woolf concluded that the main instigating factors in the 1990 riots were the prisoner’s sense of injustice. Woolf (1991) cited in Muncie and McLaughlin (2000) states “A recurring theme in the evidence from prisoners who may have instigated, and who were involved in, the riots were that their actions were a response to the manner in which they were treated by the prison system” (p220). Throughout his report, Woolf maintained that the key to solving the crisis in the penal system was to change the conditions and treatment of prisoners. He argued that all prisoners should be entitled to a humane regime in which they had adequate accommodation, adequate exercise, food and activities. He also argued that any disciplinary action against a prisoner should be explained to the individuals involved and that more emphasis should be placed on helping the individual maintain a productive life on release. (McLaughlin and Muncie 2001:22)
The Woolf report was a major instigator of reform by the government. The first major piece of legislation introduced by the government was the Criminal Justice Act 1991. The main reform brought in by the act was the ‘just desserts’ policy which allowed the criminal justice system to pass sentences that were more fitting to the crime committed. The government at the time also tried to implement some of the recommendation made in the Woolf report by relaxing some of the restrictions around the prisoners contact with their families, abolishing ‘slopping out’ and by creating a prison ombudsman. The government also attempted to reduce the prison population by means of the 1991 legislation and by encouraging system management. However these were abandoned in the late 1990s. (Cavadino and Dignan 2002:235-7)
In conclusion, there are a number of problems encountered by the penal system such as the rise in the prison population, overcrowding and order. There have been a number of attempts to try and combat these problems such as the Woolf report. However, these attempts have seemed to do little to eradicate the problems encountered by the penal system. There prison population is still on the increase, which then leads to overcrowding which in turn can cause disturbances. It seems that the main problem with the penal system is that there is a vicious circle with regards to the main problems. Without first tackling the problem of the rise in the prison population, then the problem of overcrowding cannot be made better.
