Chief prisons inspector: Overcrowding is a ticking time bomb
The UK must decide what the point of jail is, the chief inspector of prisons has warned, as he suggests they are a poor use of taxpayers’ money with criminals becoming more dangerous while inside.
Charlie Taylor said it is “almost inevitable” that whoever wins the next general election will be forced to confront the question of what prisons should be for, warning that merely locking people up in “revolting” conditions for ever-longer periods risks creating more victims of crime, not fewer.
Mr Taylor also issued a stark warning over the government’s last-ditch efforts to free up space in prisons. He said that overcrowding is a “ticking time bomb” and that plans to release inmates early and spare some offenders jail will not be enough to prevent the issue from “blowing up”.
It comes after a served to intensify the spotlight on the as prisons – with ministers forced to release inmates early for the first time in 15 years.
