Inside British prisons

What makes a British Prison different from penitentiaries and correctional facilities in other parts of the world? British prison systems are run by Her Majesty's Penal Service, which is the Executive agency which reports to the Home Office. The British prison system's statement of purpose is "HMPS serves the public by keeping in custody those committed by the courts. Our duty is to look after them with humanity and help them lead law-abiding and useful lives in custody and after release". But in what way is the British prison system set up to successfully achieve this aim?

There are currently 85,000 prisoners incarcerated in the British prison system. This is a huge amount of people for such a small landmass - in fact, England and Wales incarcerates more of its population than anywhere in Western Europe. In England and Wales currently there are 143 in jail for every 100,000. This means that penitentiary overcrowding is a major problem in the UK. Approximately 60% of the UK facilities are currently overcrowded and the system as a whole has been officially overcrowded since 1994. This is a major concern as overcrowding not only leads to increased violence inside facilities and a greater cost to the public, but it also forces authorities to grant earlier parole than they might otherwise.

The highest percentage of inmates in UK facilities are there serving time for violent offences, with the second highest percentage group serving time for drug offences. The UK also has the highest number of individuals serving life sentences anywhere in Western Europe.

There are 4 categories of correctional facilities in the UK, lettered A-D. 'A' represents a maximum security facility in the American model, and the security decreases in increments until 'D' which represents a minimum security facility.

Why not investigate a UK correctional facility in your area to learn more about how penitentiaries in England and Wales are run?