The new government should look at reducing the record-high number of prisoners remanded into custody to tackle the prisons crisis, a legal advocacy group has said.

Prime minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that he was ‘shocked’ by what the Labour administration has found out about overcrowding in prisons since taking over last week.

Ministers are due to announce the terms of a new prisoner release scheme for England and Wales today. It is expected to allow early release for some prisoners who have served 40% of their sentence, instead of the current release at half way point.

But Penelope Gibbs, director of Transform Justice, has pointed out that much of the overcrowding in prisons is due to defendants who are being held on remand ahead of their trial. As of 30 September last year, the remand prison population was 16,196, the highest level for at least 50 years and effectively a 'record high', according to a statistician behind official Prison & Probation Service stats.

Penelope Gibbs

Gibbs: Government should focus on reducing remand as well as sentences

Statistics gathered by Transform Justice show that only 36% of adults remanded in the magistrates court are given an immediate custodial sentence by the lower court as a result of their trial. The statistic excludes those committed to the Crown court for trial or sentencing.

Gibbs told the Gazette: ‘In the short term the government should focus on reducing remand as well as sentences. Our remand population is at an all time high and many of those who are imprisoned awaiting trial could be supported in the community.  

‘Magistrates and district judges should only use remand if there is a real prospect of the defendant getting a prison sentence. Yet two thirds of those remanded and tried in magistrates’ courts do not get an immediate custodial sentence.’

A Ministry of Justice guidance document describes how a previous reduction in the use of remand powers led to a decline in the prison population between 2012 and 2013.

The falling remand population during 2012 reflected falling volumes going through the courts plus the introduction of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act in December 2012. This Act restricted the use of remand for offenders who would be unlikely to receive a custodial sentence.

The remand population then began to rise again from August 2013 and overall, since June 2013 the prison population has increased, typically growing at around 1% or less a year.

 

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