Violence, self-harm and drugs: Shock new figures lay bare crisis facing Britain’s prisons

Violence and self-harm in Britain ’s prisons is soaring while drugs are readily available with almost a quarter of jails overcrowded, grim new data has revealed.

Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures on Thursday laid bare the scale of the chaos in UK prisons, days after the justice secretary announced emergency measures to ease the crisis.

The figures showed self-harm rates in UK prisons are at their highest on record, with 73,804 incidents of self-harm in the past year, the equivalent of one prisoner hurting themselves every seven minutes. Assaults hit a post-pandemic high in the last year, with 28,292 violent assaults across the estate.

The number of prisons deemed overcrowded shot up for the third year in a row, with 23.6 per cent of jails now housing too many prisoners. And prison performance ratings showed four in 10 prisons are now deemed of concern or serious concern.

The MoJ said violence and self-harm are becoming more prevalent because of widespread drug use within prisons, with drug finds having risen 44 per cent compared with the previous 12 months and discoveries of drugs-related equipment soaring 107 per cent.

With The Independent recently revealing figures showing just one in five jails had enough riot officers, the new data showed incidents of violent concerted indiscipline rose 70 per cent to hit 179 in the past year, with a further 58 hostage situations and 7,783 incidents at height, involving inmates climbing onto roofs or netting.

The crisis means prisons, which have been running at 99 per cent capacity since the start of 2023, have struggled to give prisoners time out of cells and deliver the activity needed to combat violence, drug use and self-harm.

The MoJ also warned that the prisons crisis is worsening reoffending rates and putting the public at risk.

Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “Our prisons are in crisis, leading to endemic violence and harm behind bars.

“These statistics reveal what is really happening inside jails today, and why we had no choice but to act. This government will always protect the public, lock up dangerous offenders, and make prisons safe for prisoners and the brave staff who work there.”

Andrea Coomber KC, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “These shocking statistics tell us why the new government was absolutely right to take steps to ease pressure on the prison population, and why further action will be needed to change prisons for the better.”

The Independent has repeatedly highlighted the deepening crisis in Britain’s prisons from overcrowding to staff shortages and drug abuse.

This newspaper reported last year on warnings from the chief inspector of prisons that overcrowding was a “ticking time bomb” and prisoners would need to be released early.

In a December interview, Charlie Taylor also told The Independent that “incredibly squalid” jail conditions would make it much more likely for prisoners to reoffend after their sentences.

The Independent also revealed in March that prisons were grappling with a shortage of officers trained to deal with riots, experts warning of a likely explosion of violence .

And on Monday, this newspaper reported on warnings from the chief inspector of probation that the service is struggling to cope in 97 per cent of areas - even before government plans to release thousands of prisoners early.

This month, Ms Mahmood confirmed around 5,500 prisoners will be released early in a bid to avert a disaster sparked by the overcrowding crisis.

Under the early release scheme, thousands of criminals will serve 40 per cent of their sentence, instead of being freed at the halfway point of their prison term.

Prisoners serving sentences under four years will be applicable, and those in jail for sex, terrorism and domestic offences will be excluded.

Without the measures, the justice secretary warned Britain risked facing “a total breakdown in law and order”.

She painted a bleak picture as she warned that the current situation threatened “the collapse of the criminal justice system and a total breakdown of law and order” – with “looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight”.

Ms Coomber added: “Much of the focus of policy has been on the crisis of prison capacity, with the number of available cells at the foremost of people’s minds. These figures remind us that there is a crisis of human misery behind bars too.

“Exposing people to environments of rising violence and mental distress will do nothing to turn their lives around and away from crime. This is exactly why the prime minister was correct to describe the prison system as ‘broken’. We can do much better than this.”

The figures come a day after Lord Timpson, Sir Keir Starmer’s new prisons minister, warned that Britain’s jails are “creating better criminals, not better citizens”.

The new minister, whose family company prides itself on employing ex-offenders, said almost 80 per cent of offences are reoffending.