Prison population up by more than 1,000 since start of year, figures show

The number of prisoners in England and Wales has jumped up by more than 1,000 since the start of the year, new figures reveal.

The prison population grew by 1,184 in the five weeks from December 30 to February 3, according to analysis by the PA news agency of Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data published on Monday.

This takes the number of inmates in jail to 86,802, the highest figure since October 21 last year (87,465), the day before more than 1,000 prisoners were released early as part of the Government’s bid to ease overcrowding.

Further releases of small numbers of prisoners through November and December meant the total had fallen to 85,618 by the end of 2024.

This represented a sharp fall of nearly 3,000 from the record high of 88,521, which was reached on September 6 last year, just days ahead of the first wave of early releases.

But since the start of 2025 the number has been on an upwards trend.

The increase is also the largest in a five-week period for nearly two years, since a jump of 1,198 between January 27 and March 3 2023 – though at this point the total number of prisoners was still below 84,000.

The Government began freeing thousands of inmates early in September 2024, in order to curb jail overcrowding in England and Wales by temporarily reducing the proportion of sentences which some prisoners must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously said he had no choice but to cut jail time for prisoners as part of urgent efforts to tackle the overcrowding crisis, as he blamed previous government inaction for forcing him into the move.

Latest figures on Monday show the operational capacity for men and women’s prisons is 88,687, indicating there are 1,885 spaces available for criminals.

An additional 1,350 cell spaces tend always to be kept free above the overall operational capacity of the prison estate in England and Wales as a contingency measure so jails can cope with a sudden influx of inmates or change in the make-up of the prison population, according to the MoJ.

Ministers have promised to find a total of 14,000 cell spaces in jails by 2031.

Some 6,400 of these will be at newly built prisons, with £2.3 billion going towards the cost over the next two years.

A further £220 million is being invested in prison and probation service maintenance to improve conditions in 2024-25, and up to £300 million in 2025-26.

The prison population is projected to increase to between 95,700 and 105,200 by March 2029, with a central estimate of 100,800, figures published by the MoJ in December last year show.

The MoJ said the potential rise is driven by factors including “continued growth” in suspects being charged and prosecuted, more cases coming to court, the “rising levels of people on remand” and “changes in sentencing policy and behaviour to keep the most serious offenders in prison for longer”.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We’ve already taken difficult but necessary immediate action to stop our prisons from collapsing. We are now taking the long-term measures to fix our prisons, reduce reoffending and cut crime.

“This includes building 14,000 more prison places and sentencing reform to ensure no government runs out of prison space again.”