In Northern Ireland the price of housing one prisoner for one year is £95,000, according to a recent report*: the similar rate in England & Wales is on average £45,000.

The Cost Per Prisoner Place (costs relative to the number of available places for prisoners) is high – at £77,831 – significantly in excess of the comparable position in England and Wales (£45,000) and Scotland (£41,724). The current occupancy level across the three Northern Ireland prisons was 82% compared with 106% in Scotland and 113% in England and Wales. Given the occupancy level of 82% the actual cost per prisoner is significantly higher at £94,804.§

As the report states there are reasons why it should be much more here,

… much of the prison estate is inadequate and according to a number of inspection reports, is not fit-for-purpose. The high security focus of Maghaberry Prison for example – Northern Ireland’s committal prison – means that a wide range of prisoners (remand, fine defaulters, short sentence, life sentence prisoners) are held in maximum security conditions. The decision to separate paramilitary prisoners incurs additional costs. Furthermore, the small scale of the Prison Service and its estate in Northern Ireland means that it does not benefit from economies of scale enjoyed by larger organisations. In addition, the ratio of staff to prisoners in Northern Ireland is almost two and a half times that of England and Wales and prison officers here are paid on average a third more.†

However, there must be reform Continue reading “£95,000 per prisoner per year: reform is much needed to prisons”