Watchdog warns of prison overcrowding as Boris Johnson vows to extend jail terms
Ministers accused of showing ‘inaccurate and incomplete understanding’ of how to improve jail system as they prepare to lock prisoners up for longer. May Bulman reports
Ministers are failing to tackle overcrowding and soaring levels of violence and self-harm in prisons, the government’s spending watchdog has warned as Boris Johnson vows to introduce longer jail terms.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said the prison service had shown an “inaccurate and incomplete understanding” of how to improve the system, presiding over plummeting levels of safety and huge maintenance backlogs despite having introduced flagship initiatives to tackle these issues five years ago.
It comes as the prime minister plans to increase prison sentences for serious sexual and violent offenders, as well as creating 10,000 more prison places in order to “improve the criminal justice system and make sure criminals are serving the time they are sentenced to”.
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