As British law enforcement agencies note, English and Welsh prisons may soon face the problem of a shortage of places for prisoners. The maximum number of people they can accommodate is 75,191.
According to Goggins, the reason for the overcrowding of the country's prisons is the imperfection of legislation, according to which minor offenses carry short prison sentences. As the head of British prisons noted, the number of prisoners has set a record in the history of the country, and this despite the fact that according to statistics the number of serious offenses has decreased since 1997.
British prisons have complained about the too large number of prisoners more than once. In May 2002, the Prison Service noted a significant increase in the number of female prisoners. According to the service, at that time penitentiary institutions were seriously overloaded, the conditions of detention for women deteriorated sharply, and this led to an increase in the number of suicides and cases of intentional self-harm.