The UK prison system has long faced significant challenges, from overcrowding and underfunding to issues of rehabilitation and safety.

These ongoing concerns continue to shape the debate around criminal justice in the country.

Against this backdrop, One Tree Books in Petersfield hosted a timely discussion in early January, kicking off 2025 with a deep dive into the prison subject.

The event, titled ‘The state of the Prison Service in the UK’, featured Amy Dolley from the Howard League for Penal Reform to offer expert insights into the current state of affairs.

Organiser Philip Selby explained that the topic of the prison service was selected in response to the riots triggered by the Southport knife attacks, which led to the early release of prisoners to accommodate those jailed as a result of the protests.

Amy is a policy and public affairs officer at the Howard League and works on policy and wider engagement with the organisation's campaigns.

She joined the Howard League after volunteering for a Sunday church service at a local prison when she was in university.

“I said yes, not really knowing what to expect, and then wandered into prison and just had my heart broken for the cause,” Amy explained.

“I met so many men, most of them in distress and really sad, troubling stories, but I also encountered lots of stories of hope.

“We were able to pray with them, give them free biscuits, check in on them, see how they were doing, help with a few bits of admin and make sure the letters got sent to their family and their friends.

“Fast forward nine years and I’m still going into this prison and I love it.”

Amy described how UK prisons are in a “crisis state”.

“We've been locking up more people while allowing jails to deteriorate and not rehabilitating people properly,” she said.

“We're only just at the point where the Government is really accepting that this is a crisis. Keir Starmer very recently called the prison estate in a ‘crisis state’ and politicians of all stripes would agree with him as well.

“We might differ on how we're going to fix the problem, but everyone does agree that something needs to be done.”

According to a UK Parliament publication from October of last year, the UK’s prison population is projected to rise significantly in the coming years. Amy noted that the latest government estimates predict an increase of 30 percent over the next four years, although the actual rise is expected to be even higher.

She explained how reoffenders contribute to the increase because the system is not properly rehabilitating people.

She said: “If someone is in prison and they know that they're very likely going to be released into homelessness, back into an abusive family or into poverty.

“Then the temptation to reoffend, not just for the sake of committing a crime, but just because they have no other options will be far greater.

“The government needs to just take a real approach to dealing with this in the long term.”

In August last year, Ministry of Justice figures showed that 329 offenders in East Hampshire were released from prison, cautioned or handed a non-custodial sentence in the year to September 2022. Of them, 61 went on to reoffend within a year. In Waverley the number was 49, with Woking recording 91 reoffenders.

During her talk, Amy focused on how the country got into its current position in the first place, why jails are so overcrowded, the impact overcrowding has on life inside prison and what can be done to try and improve the situation.

“I want you to picture that you're in a cell [measuring] about 12 by eight feet,” Amy said at the start of her talk.

“It's freezing cold, there's a crack in the window, mould on the walls and you just spotted a rat in the corner. This might sound quite Dickensian, but it is happening in prisons today, just like HMP Winchester.

“You might have been waiting a week for your access to the library because you've just managed to enrol in an Open University course, and you need to study to get your paper in.

“But you've just been told that you can't come in this week because there aren't enough staff to chaperone you.

“You're feeling a bit bummed out, but at least you can go to church on Sunday where you can meet volunteers like me, get some free biscuits and maybe some prayer.

“Five minutes before you're due to leave, you've just been told that you're going to have to be locked in your cell because there's a mental health emergency involving the guy next door, and all the officers are being deployed to help him out.

“You're also worried about your own cellmate, who's currently inconsolable because he's just been denied access to go to his brother's funeral because of delays with the paperwork.

“This is happening every day, and it has been happening for years in our prisons.”

According to Amy, the most common issues facing UK prisons include a lack of support and facilities for neurodivergent prisoners, sentence inflation, a high number of people on remand, an ageing population, insufficient mental health support, poor living standards, reduced funding, an increase in violence, and inadequate rehabilitation services.

However, rather than fixing these problems, the Labour Government’s response is to build more prisons, extend existing ones and create temporary cells.

Amy added: “Labour’s ambitious aim is to open up 14,000 more prison places by 2031. But all the evidence shows that even if we were to build at this ambitious rate, the number of people incarcerated would still outweigh the additional places significantly.

“I would also argue that the billions being spent on prison building could be better spent on strengthening the provision in existing prisons, particularly rebuilding and strengthening the probation service, which is really crucial for helping people get back into society and the local communities.”

Amy and others at Howard League are hopeful about the review of prison sentences by David Gauke, a former Conservative justice secretary.

She said: “We are really pleased this is underway as it is a really crucial ingredient in solving the problems that we see in the criminal justice system.

“Longer sentences are not helping in terms of prison overcrowding, so if we can tackle that, then we might have some positive progress.”

The latest progress update is the new Women’s Justice Board that will aim to reduce the number of women in prison, cut reoffending, and better support children.