Prison warns of capacity limit as inmates increase

Population increases have put the most pressure on vulnerable prisoner accommodation

Pressure on capacity at Jersey's prison means it could be difficult to accommodate prisoners in future, the prison service has said.

The average number of inmates at La Moye Prison each day rose from 138 in 2023 to 155 in 2024, its annual report revealed.

In December, the highest occupancy rate was 88% - 176 prisoners out of an overall capacity of 200. The prison service said the overall increase was due to more prisoners coming to the prison than leaving in the past few years.

It said the population increase put the most pressure on vulnerable prisoner accommodation, which has space for 59 prisoners.

The report said four more beds in that area had to be added after it reached maximum capacity in November.

It said longer sentences meant population pressures would continue as prisoners were released less quickly.

The report added 91% of prisoners had access to accommodation upon release but a "lack of housing availability and rising rental and deposit costs" posed an issue.

A total of 46% of accommodation placements were transient or temporary, it said.

Deputy Mary Le Hegarat says increasing capacity does not have to mean making the prison larger

Minister for Justice and Home Affairs Deputy Mary Le Hegarat said increasing the prison's capacity was "not necessarily" about increasing the size of the prison.

She said: "There's a lot of things, a lot of work that needs to be done to improve the actual prison itself anyway and that's still to be completed.

"I think the actual increase in the numbers isn't necessarily something that we've actually looked at but it's something that we will continue to monitor as to how we're going to manage if the prison does actually get closer and closer to capacity."

Ms Le Hegarat said the accommodation situation could be improved by making sure prisoners were fully rehabilitated upon release.

She said: "I think the key thing with the increase in everything else is that we actually need to make sure that we rehabilitate offenders so that we've been successful in increasing the opportunities for work, which is important.

"The accommodation is always going to improve if a person can actually get employment and get good employment so that they're able to afford a reasonable standard of accommodation."