This report by Policy Exchange shows the Government how to deliver on its Manifesto commitment to build more prisons.

The report explicitly rejects the suggestion that we are “addicted to punishment” – making the case that protecting the law-abiding majority means sending more criminals to prison. Compared to the 9.5 million criminal offences committed every year and 1.15 million people convicted of criminal offences the report reveals we send comparatively few people to prison.

The report’s analysis shows that, despite already having more than 45 previous convictions, ‘Hyper-Prolific Offenders’ are sent to prison on less than half of all occasions (46.2%) on conviction for an indictable or either-way offence.

The report also contains a series of case studies which reveal:

• the ease with which the drug ‘Spice’ or ‘Black Mamba’ is being trafficked into prisons – being hidden inside legally privileged papers;
• that some prisoners are being locked in their cells for up to 22-hours because prison officers consider them ‘too difficult’ to deal with; and
• that there are cases where prison officers have been assaulted by prisoners who then receive no sanction beyond having to write a letter of apology to the prison officer they attacked.

With ten recommendations this report proposes a way forward for expanding the prison estate and starting the rebuilding of the Prison Service.

The launch of this report was covered by:

• The Telegraph (1)
• The Telegraph (2)
• The Daily Mail
• The Sun
• GB News
• Times Radio