Question
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government what projections they have of the prison population over the next 10 years; and what plans they have to respond to those projections. [HL31]
The latest projections for the prison population were published on 18 September, in the Ministry of Justice statistics bulletin Prison Population Projections 2008-15. The projections estimate the demand for prison places for the next seven years in three different scenarios. Under these scenarios, the prison population (at the end of June) is projected to be:
Year High Medium Low 2009 85,100 84,300 83,300 2010 88,100 86,400 84,400 2011 90,500 87,900 85,100 2012 92,100 88,700 85,000 2013 93,000 88,600 84,100 2014 94,200 89,000 83,600 2015 95,800 89,700 83,400
We are responding to expected rises in the prison population by pursuing an extensive building programme, which is designed to increase capacity in the prison estate to 96,000 places by 2014. We have also taken a number of measures, recommended by Lord Carter in his review of prisons and enacted in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, to ensure that the use of custody is better focused on those serious, dangerous and seriously persistent offenders for whom it is appropriate and necessary.