Prison Watchdog Report Highlights Overcrowding and Violence as New Government Warns System Near Collapse

The independent monitoring board released its annual report on conditions across the prison estate of England and Wales. Men and women are held for long periods in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, often living alongside vermin. Inmates are not fed properly and have trouble accessing medical assistance.

Many inmates have no opportunity to learn a skill or participate in education. Gangs appear to control entire wings and roam around cells collecting drug debts with threats of violence. Toilets remain broken for weeks.

Men, women and children spend most of their days locked up with no activities. Prisoners risk being attacked, often with weapons, if they leave their cell. “Failures once regarded as serious are at risk of becoming normalised,” the report concludes.

The report cites a man in HMP Garth, Lancashire, who died in a cell fire after the alarm apparently failed to sound. A man at HMP Bullingdon, Oxfordshire, was warned that he may lose his leg after being bitten during an infestation of spiders. Several inmates were bitten during the same infestation.

There was a spike in self-harm during hot weather at HMP Foston Hall in Derbyshire after managers did not have the funds to buy fans. There has been a steady increase in the number of people succumbing to a drug addiction once they are incarcerated. Boards often observed spikes in debt-related violence and anxiety-driven self-harm as drug dealers sought to collect their debts.

Inmates at HMP Manchester, formerly Strangeways, were reportedly informed in advance of a cell search. The crisis preceded Keir Starmer’s government, which entered office in the summer of 2024. On day one, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood introduced early release schemes and diverted prisoners to police cells.

Shabana Mahmood said that the entire criminal justice system was close to collapse. She said that without prison places, criminals might act with impunity. “There is now only one way to avert disaster,” she warned.

The maximum prison population capacity is 89,800. Thousands of jury trials are being ditched. Magistrates will try more serious cases. The automatic right of appeal against conviction or sentence for many accused people is to be dropped.

Lord James Timpson was recruited as prisons minister two years ago. Despite repeated warnings in previous IMB reports at both national and local levels, the same problems persist with striking frequency. This recurring pattern raises unavoidable questions about effectiveness, accountability and the system’s capacity to correct its course, the report says.