Housing minister Matthew Pennycook defended the government's handling of England and Wales' prison system amid criticism from security officials. He admitted the urgency of prison capacity pressures but argued against relying solely on building more facilities. Citing a legacy of neglect from the previous administration, he emphasized that increasing sentence lengths without adequate prison space could lead to a collapse of the system. Pennycook acknowledged the immediate need for sentencing reforms, asserting that without serious investment, public safety and law enforcement could deteriorate significantly.
The risk to public safety I'd highlight is the prospect of our prison system collapsing, which is what we face and why we've had to act.
What we were handed by the previous government in terms of the state of our prison system was nothing short of criminal neglect.
If we run out of capacity, courts will be forced to suspend trials, the police will have to halt arrests, crimes will go unpunished.
While we're trying to add prison places as fast as we can as a Government, we can't build our way out of this particular crisis.
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