Shrewsbury’s Dana Prison was today named the most overcrowded jail in the country. The prison is holding up to 150 more inmates than it should be.It is designed to handle 178 prisoners, but its current population has been stretched to 326 - which means it is over-subscribed by a massive 183 per cent.
Earlier this year, Ministry of Justice figures revealed some 504 inmates at the county’s two jails were having to “double-up” because of a chronic shortage of prison places.
At the end of February, 308 convicts were being held two to a cell at Shrewsbury’s prison and 196 at Stoke Heath in Market Drayton.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, accused ministers of being complacent about the issue.
She said: “In an economic downturn it defies belief that billions of pounds should be spent locking up more and more people only to turn them out of jail homeless, jobless and ready to offend again.
“The prison population is mushrooming out of control, and the Government is still trying hopelessly to build its way out of a crisis.”
With the current prison population at a record high, SmartJustice today called for alternatives to simply locking people up.
Director Lucie Russell said: “Cramming prisoners into overcrowded jails just isn’t smart. We need prisons to keep us safe from dangerous and violent offenders but three out of five prisoners are serving time for non-violent crimes.”
Overcrowding at The Dana has long been a problem and a report by the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, in 2006, said the building had “unacceptable accommodation”.
Many cells are unfit, some shower areas are held up by scaffolding and walls are damp, the report said.
23 Comments
this explains the high rates of suicide, bullying, depression etc at this prison, i do not think we should go soft on prisoner, but how on earth will we reform them keeping them locked down 5 to a cell all day, they need to get out to do some exercise, i would have the (non dangerous) ones, out litter picking and building like in Shawshank Redemption
Excellent news. Prisoners deserve to live in filth and squalor, it’s just a pity that sentences are so short.
I think the prison being grade 2 listed, would convert into some lovely luxury appartments, in a town centre location they’d make millions, which would easily fund a new out of town prison where people could be kept AWAY from the communities they threaten not at the heart of it, I agree prison should be tougher too, let the army run them i say, you see what they do in Basra, give them a kicking once in a while it will remind them not to reoffend
Make them work hard all day to pay for the prisons and reduce the tax burden, there is a huge waste of manpower, build more prisons.
The answer is do not break the law. Easy, really.
We are in danger of prisons becoming a deterrent to commit crime in the first place. This can never happen due to the human rights movement. Better living conditions are urgently needed for paedophiles, rapists, murders, burglars, drug dealers. Hopefully my taxes will increase to do this.
#2, #5, not all prisoners are thieves, murderers or rapists you know. In fact I’m sure a lot of the ‘crimes’ they are arrested for would be the sorts of laws you two would be on this website complaining about under any other circumstances.
Not all prisoners are truly guilty either.
I can’t see what the “problem” is
Matt, problem is, prison is too nice for these crims. No bills, free food, clean clothes, free gym, and all the entertainment and education they need, ALL FOR FREE!
I fail to remember when a prison become a hotel.
IT’S SUPPOSED TO NOT BE A NICE PLACE! YOUR THERE TO BE PUNISHED NOT PAMPERED. As Matt said “don’t break the law, easy!”
I reckon they should make them “Hell on Earth”
Forget civil right, you do wrong, you face the concequences, abolish stupid laws like a burgular has rights in your home, he should have lost his rights when he trespassed!
From his comments, I presume dan de marco has been in Shrewsbury Prison to view the cells that allows him to make such ridiculous comments. He must have visited at a different time to me. Fact, 5 prisoners are not locked in a cell. The most is three to a cell. 5 Prisoners may well be locked in a dormitory but I am not aware that HMP Salop had any.
These people asked to go there, nobody forced them, they literally begged for it. If as many were sent to Prison as deserved it, the Prisons would be a sight more full. It is the Labour Government “dumbing down” sentences and failing to build more prisons that has got the criminal justice issue in this country into the anarchical state that it is in.
I wonder how many innocent victims of crime wish that they were in Prison rather than in the broken and sorry state that these criminals have left them in. I could cure much of the crime in this country at a stroke and that stroke would be a very severe one.
“if you cant do the time, dont do the crime” suicide, bullying and depression, im sure this is what these CRIMINALS have with their TV’s X’boxes Playstations, internet access no care as to whats going on around them i.e. paying bills, economy worries etc. im sure thats going to reform them isnt it!!!!! and you think overcrowding is the big problem the prison service has. What is the deterrent these days???
just like the litter louts and the speeding drivers - if you cant do the time dont do the crime
Am I bovvered? let them eat cake
Pack them all in like sardines.
In fact most prisoners would welcome worse living conditions as it would make them less likely to reoffend when they are released
of course none of the above have ever done anything wrong,
Could anyone imagine building a new prison in an out of town location.
the nimby’s are knocking together banners as i write this.
my dad, what a most profound statement - and an unintelligent one. So, the only ones that can comment on Prisons are those that are “bent” themselves are they. I for one, neither has anyone in my immediate or extended family done anything to justify imprisonment - but, based on my life’s experiences, I am not being arrogant when I say that I know more about prisons than you, your dad and thousands of other people. At present they are a joke and neither punish, train, redeem or do anything other than take villains out of society for a “relatively” short time. When Prisons, and the judicial system returns to what they were in the 1950s, we will see an almost immediate reduction in re-offending, until then, as things stand now, crime will continue to rise and anarchy will prevail on our streets.
Y MAB DAROGAN.
Could not have been said better!
We are sending more and more people to prison, and it’s plain that whatever the prisons are doing, it isn’t working, in terms of deterrence, rehabilitation, education or anything else.
Speaking as someone who several years working in a local prison very similar, although larger, than the Dana, I would suggest that we need to concentrate out efforts on the following, if we are to make prisons work:
Firstly, don’t send people who are mentally ill to prison - there are a large number of people inside who should really be receiving treatment in secure hospitals - but of course we don’t have enough of those, so it’s easier to just bang them up.
Secondly, a large number of prisoners have addiction problems of one sort or another - which often help to drive their offending behaviour. We need to treat these addictions while they’re inside - the benefits would far outweigh the cost, but of course we don’t have the specialised staff or the funding to do this, so the problem continues unabated.
Thirdly, we need to educate prisoners - an astonishing number are illiterate, which much reduces their chance of ever adopting a productive lifestyle outside. It’s all very well hoping that people will change their ways, but you have to give them the opportunity and the means to do so. Take the recent case of the lad who had been found guilty of a burglary, done his time, and gone on to get 4 ‘A’ grade ‘A’ levels - he wanted to be a doctor, but was turned down as a result of his supposedly ’spent’ conviction. The Daily Mail reader types were clamouring for him to be denied the chance, despite his efforts to change - I suspect that many of the correspondents here would support them.
Fortunately he has been allowed to continue with his studies on appeal, but if it’s that hard for an intelligent person to try and turn his life around, what chance do the rest have?
I believe we can make our prisons work better, in respect of all the things we want them to do - i.e. retribution, rehabilitation, education, but the plain truth is that this would involve spending tax money on new facilities and extra staff to make it work. I would suggest there is neither the public support to spend the money, nor to have prisons in the anyone’s local vicinity, and since you can’t have it both ways, sadly the status quo will continue.
Broadly Peter, with many. many provisos I would agree with you. However, Prisons will never be “retributive, rehabilative, educative or any other “ive” whilst the present anarchic regime exists in HMPs. Only when the will, the approach and more importantly, the ability of the “Daily Mail reader” types (who, and whatever they are - though I guess) are applied, will prisons attain what society, (except the Guardian reader types) wishes them to.
The soft, liberal left have had their say for far to long and the grotesque state of our country is the daily living proof of it. The kid gloves are long overdue to be taken off and only then will many in this country take pride in it once more having taken it back from the yobs, thugs, criminals and bleeding heart liberals who have made us the scum of Europe. It can be done, but not with the present Government and certainly not with the Liberal Democrats who have recently said that young criminals should not be sent to prison.
As things now stand, it seems to me we need a Prison in every reasonable sized town. lol.
Peter, I’d almost given up hope of a sensible well-informed comment on this forum. Thank you.
Chris, I would be most interested to read your own “sensible, well informed comment”. Perhaps you could also say what experience of the subject, allows you to make it.
I cant believe how small minded some people have been about this subject. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but from some of the comments on here it seems that the people posting them have no real knowledge of what prison life is really like. I have never been convicted of any crime but have some basic understanding that what goes on during time in prison and life is not the holiday camp portrayed. Luxuries to most would be spending time with loved ones for more than 2 hours a fortnight, not playing on an Xbox or Playstation to pass the time. These things arent just handed to prisoners on a plate, they have to earn them as priviledges. I dont think prison should be a method of punishment, it should be a means of keeping the rest of the population safe and the fact that most people currently in prison are spending time inside for less serious offences is ridiculous. No wonder the economy is in the state it it! These people should be getting on with their day to day lives-getting up in the morning and going to work…EARNING a living and not using up tax payers money unecessarily. Not everyone is in their for a “free ride”. Some cant wait to get out and carry on with normal life and going to work to earn a living. What you forget is that not only does it affect the person doing the time but also those on the outside; family and friends etc. Considering this article is stating that prisons are simply overcrowded stresses mine and others points that some people are in there when there is no real need for them to be. Fair anough serious crimes and dangerous people, not minor offences that the every day Joe Bloggs committs.Everyone makes mistakes but prison shouldnt be the only answer. There are many other methods to punish or correct peoples behaviour-all it takes is a little time, funding and effort. Prison doesnt solve anything for the majority of people in there, these issues need addressing, not simply stalling for the length of the sentance until they get released and continue what they were doing in the first place. Fact is, the people is charge dont know what to do and the easy solution is to just put them in prison…out of sight out of mind hey.The overcrowding issue would be resolved if it wasnt for the fact that theres so many people in there for silly things! Im NOT saying that prison isnt a useful resource but it is one that is being abused resulting in the overcrowding mentioned.