ABSTRACT
The prison population rate of England and Wales doubled between 1994 and 2010, remaining fairly stable after 2010. The prison estate remains blighted by poor material conditions and high levels of violence and self-harm. After years of under-investment and inadequate staffing, about half of the country’s prisons are overcrowded. Experts had feared that COVID-19 would take a heavy toll in prisons. By dint of highly restrictive regimes imposed across the estate over several months, the toll in lives and confirmed cases has been less heavy than was feared. This came at the cost of greatly reduced family and social contact, and even less access to education, work and rehabilitation programmes than before COVID-19 struck. Over the first ten months of the pandemic, the total prison population declined. This was due to the national lockdown and court closures, rather than the implementation of much-needed policies to reduce prisoner numbers.
