Expense of Incarcerating Prisoners Exceeds Tuition Fees at Eton College

The cost of incarcerating convicted criminals in prisons across England and Wales has soared to over £50,000 per year, surpassing the annual fees for a student attending Eton College for the first time. This sharp increase in expenditure reflects a surge in the number of offenders being sentenced to prison, pushing the annual bill for running prisons in England and Wales beyond £4 billion, a record high.

 

These figures emerge amidst growing concerns within the Ministry of Justice about the imminent lack of space in prisons. Internal projections indicate that prisons will reach full capacity within weeks, with just 2,000 spaces currently available out of an operational capacity of 88,890. Projections from the Ministry of Justice suggest that the demand for prison places will escalate by up to 25,000 over the next four years, reaching 114,800, owing to longer prison sentences and increased apprehensions resulting from the addition of 20,000 police officers.

 

Data from the Ministry of Justice reveals that the average cost of accommodating a prisoner in England and Wales reached £51,724 per year in 2022-23, marking an 11.4 percent increase from the previous year. This surge in costs outpaced consumer prices inflation, which stood at 7.8 percent for the same period. In comparison, the annual fees for Eton College, attended by notable figures like Boris Johnson, Lord David Cameron, and Eddie Redmayne, totaled £49,998.

 

While prisoners receive meals like baked fish and chips with jelly at an average daily cost of £2.08, Etonians enjoy culinary offerings such as vegan bao buns with pulled jackfruit, Dominican chimichurri burgers, and Vietnamese pork banh mi. Moreover, Eton College boasts extensive facilities including 29 laboratories for biology, chemistry, and physics, a natural history museum with 16,000 objects, and a national-standard athletics stadium.

 

In terms of variations in costs between prisons, data indicates significant disparities even among facilities of similar status. For instance, HMP Wakefield, a high-security category A prison, incurs costs of £40,465 per prisoner per year, whereas HMP Whitemoor, also a category A facility, records costs of £92,866 per prisoner per year. Young offender institutions (YOIs) tend to have the highest per capita costs, with YOI Wetherby spending £159,152 per person annually and YOI Werrington costing £222,911 per inmate.

 

These revelations come amidst efforts by Justice Secretary Alex Chalk to reduce the prison population, including measures to release prisoners up to 60 days before their scheduled release dates. Labour has pledged to utilize emergency powers to expedite planning permission for the construction of 20,000 additional jail places, while the Conservative Party is considering similar proposals following delays in the construction of mega-prisons due to what Mr. Chalk has described as a "sclerotic" planning system.

 

The Johnson Partnership

Nottingham Solicitors

 

01159 419141