The worst and most overcrowded prisons in the UK have been revealed, with Shrewsbury topping the list as most overcrowded.
The Prison Reform Trust, which has published the 'top 20' list of prisons, warned prison overcrowding and high reoffending levels are in 'in danger of being regarded by ministers as a fact of life and too difficult to fix'.
The trust says the prison population has reached a record high of over 84,000 prisoners, with almost two thirds of the prisons in England and Wales officially overcrowded. They say there are now 8,865 more people in prison than the system is designed to hold.
But the Ministry of Justice said the government is in the process of building more prisons, and will always ensure places for serious and persistent offenders.
But the trust says there is 'sentence inflation' which must be tackled. From their list of the worst prisons, they say Shrewsbury currently holds 316 men, when it is designed to hold 177, and Swansea holds 395 men, when it should hold 230. Dorchester was in third place, holding 229 men, but designed for 137.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust said: 'Pressure on public spending means that ministers can no longer afford to be complacent about prison overcrowding or the high reconviction rates it leads to.
'Simply building more prisons is an expensive dead end. The only way to reserve prison for serious and violent offenders is to cut out all unnecessary use of breach and remand and tackle sentence inflation and the growth of indeterminate punishments.
'Investment in prevention, treatment for addicts and mental healthcare would all pay dividends. After more than ten years of lurching from crisis to crisis it must be time for coordinated effort across departments and authoritative leadership.'
The trust added, 88 out of 140 jails were over the prison service's certified normal accommodation: 'the good, decent standard of accommodation that the service aspires to provide all prisoners', and nine prisons were so full they reached, and in one case went beyond, their 'safe overcrowding limit'.
But the Ministry of Justice has said it is doing all it can. A spokesperson for the MoJ said: 'We will always provide enough prison places for serious and persistent offenders.
'The government is pursuing an extensive building programme to expand the prison estate and expect to deliver an additional 1,750 places in 2009. Since 2007 a total of 4,929 places have been delivered as part of the capacity programme. The vast majority of these places, almost 4,700, have been provided in new accommodation.
'This is intended to provide us with sufficient space to modernise the estate and ensure prisons remain places of both punishment and reform.'
They added new prisons were being built in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, London, Merseyside, Staffordshire and Leicestershire.
The Prison Reform Trust, which has published the 'top 20' list of prisons, warned prison overcrowding and high reoffending levels are in 'in danger of being regarded by ministers as a fact of life and too difficult to fix'.
The trust says the prison population has reached a record high of over 84,000 prisoners, with almost two thirds of the prisons in England and Wales officially overcrowded. They say there are now 8,865 more people in prison than the system is designed to hold.
But the Ministry of Justice said the government is in the process of building more prisons, and will always ensure places for serious and persistent offenders.
But the trust says there is 'sentence inflation' which must be tackled. From their list of the worst prisons, they say Shrewsbury currently holds 316 men, when it is designed to hold 177, and Swansea holds 395 men, when it should hold 230. Dorchester was in third place, holding 229 men, but designed for 137.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust said: 'Pressure on public spending means that ministers can no longer afford to be complacent about prison overcrowding or the high reconviction rates it leads to.
'Simply building more prisons is an expensive dead end. The only way to reserve prison for serious and violent offenders is to cut out all unnecessary use of breach and remand and tackle sentence inflation and the growth of indeterminate punishments.
'Investment in prevention, treatment for addicts and mental healthcare would all pay dividends. After more than ten years of lurching from crisis to crisis it must be time for coordinated effort across departments and authoritative leadership.'
The trust added, 88 out of 140 jails were over the prison service's certified normal accommodation: 'the good, decent standard of accommodation that the service aspires to provide all prisoners', and nine prisons were so full they reached, and in one case went beyond, their 'safe overcrowding limit'.
But the Ministry of Justice has said it is doing all it can. A spokesperson for the MoJ said: 'We will always provide enough prison places for serious and persistent offenders.
'The government is pursuing an extensive building programme to expand the prison estate and expect to deliver an additional 1,750 places in 2009. Since 2007 a total of 4,929 places have been delivered as part of the capacity programme. The vast majority of these places, almost 4,700, have been provided in new accommodation.
'This is intended to provide us with sufficient space to modernise the estate and ensure prisons remain places of both punishment and reform.'
They added new prisons were being built in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, London, Merseyside, Staffordshire and Leicestershire.
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