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Overcrowding and its impact on prison conditions and health
Overcrowding has been one of the biggest issues for prisons for many years and we highlighted this problem in an editorial of IJPH in 2012. However, it is depressing that this remains a serious problem. Indeed, very little seems to have changed in nearly 30 years. As early as 1990, the Director General of the English and Welsh Prison Service argued that “the removal of overcrowding is […] an indispensable pre-condition of sustained and universal improvement in prison conditions”. He insisted that “for improvement to be solid and service-wide, the canker of overcrowding must be rooted out” (Prison Reform Trust, 2017). Moving on to 2018, Penal Reform International (2018) was still able to write that:
Overcrowding is an obvious cause of and contributing factor in many of the health issues in prisons, most notably infectious diseases and mental health issues. The latest data shows that 22 national prison systems hold more than double their capacity, with a further 27 countries operating at 150-200%.
Overcrowded prisons around the world create difficult and widespread challenges to maintaining prisoner health and providing a safe environment. Overcrowded prisons can lead to insanitary, violent conditions that are harmful to the physical and mental well-being of prisoners (UNODC, 2013). Staff who are working in overcrowded prisons are also at risk in a range of ways. They face greater potential violence from the prisoners, threat of infection and increased stress and mental health issues. Prison officers are, as a recent UK Ministry of Justice (2017a, b, c) report noted, leaving the Prison Service in significant numbers.
The scale of overcrowding remains huge. In excess of 10.35 million people are held in penal institutions worldwide, mostly as pre-trial detainees, remand or sentenced prisoners. Walmsley’s 11th edition of the World Prison Population List (2016) shows that there is some reduction in the numbers of people being incarcerated in Europe, North and South America and in part of Africa and Oceania. However, in the Caribbean, Russia and Turkey, the number of prisoners has actually increased. In all cases, the number of prisoners is still far too high.
Discussion on the negative consequences of overcrowded prisons is not new and in general there are two responses: build more prisons...