'An insult to victims of crime'...crisis but prisons 'half empty'

SEVERAL prisons in the UK are nearly half empty - despite the capacity crisis that resulted in the Government releasing nearly 40,000 inmates early.

- JAKE HOLDEN

Conservative shadow justice minister Kieran Mullan said it was “an insult to victims and puts the public at increased risk” and that the “Labour Government needs to grip this issue”.

The Ministry of Justice claims “this is not true” and all male prisons are at “over 80% capacity”, but their own population figures tell a different story.

When looking at the baseline certified normal accommodation (CNA) for prisons - the sum total of all certified accommodation in a prison - two prisons are less than half full, and a further seven are more than a quarter empty.

HMP Cookham Wood in Rochester, Kent, is certified to house 180 prisoners, but as of October, there were only 83 inmates. This is 46% of its capacity.