Inside Britain’s newest prison: Hope, reform, and the looming crisis in our overcrowded jails
28 March 2025, 08:11 | Updated: 28 March 2025, 11:55
The walls are covered with inspirational quotes from ex-offenders and celebrities: a big picture of Muhammad Ali takes centre stage, next to his words: ‘Don't count the days, make the days count.’
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“And I think that’s really poignant for a prison setting because a lot of people will be counting down the days while they’re here - but you’ve got to make it count,” one prison official told me as we stood in Britain’s newest prison HMP Millsike.
The walls of this prison are pastel coloured, the toilets are gender neutral and prisoners will have a say in naming their own blocks.
The quotes are there, I was told by the official, “to help people understand that there's hope because part of our job is to help people look to the future and make a better future for themselves - it's there to help people understand that if they put effort in - they can change their futures so we are really getting people out to be job ready."
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HMP Millsike: New 1500-space prison opens to tackle jail overcrowding
This prison in North Yorkshire - the size of 39 football pitches - will soon hold 1,500 offenders. These prisoners will spend their sentences learning the skills they need to find work on release.
It has been dubbed Britain’s greenest prison because it will run solely on electricity and will use solar panels, heat pump technology and more efficient lighting systems to run the prison.
This prison is part of a wider Government plan to build 14,000 new prison places by 2031 but this will not be enough. There are currently less than 700 places across the entire prison estate - offenders are being held within prison cells and within months the system could run out of space.
David Gauke, the former Conservative minister, is currently conducting a sentencing review which could lead to criminals’ short sentences being suspended. But the Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told me even this on top of building more prisons will not be enough:
“Short sentence reform, reform on its own isn't going to be enough. The fact that we're building, and we're committed to building 14,000 prison places by 20. 30, 31, that isn't going to be enough. The fact that we can't build our way out of this crisis, despite a record investment in prison building this year and next by this new Labour government. It shows the scale of what we've inherited.
Mahmood also hinted sthat erious and dangerous criminals could have their sentences cut short in the future.
“We have to take action. We cannot be in a position where our prison system is on the brink of collapse on a regular basis. I've got to get us out of that particular doom loop. It means that we have to look at sentencing reform. I've said the three principles that that has to abide by, but it's also why we're interested in the experience of Texas where offenders were able to earn their way to an earlier parole hearing if and only if they were engaging with a good behaviour credits programme. They were doing the rehabilitation activity, they were getting themselves off drink and drugs. They were showing that they were willing to turn their backs on a life of crime. If they do that, they were then being rewarded for it. That's a system that we're very interested in and it's something that I've asked the Sentencing Review to consider.”
The Spring Statement this week promised cuts to budgets - something that could stall the Justice Secretary’s progress - she says she is firmly lobbying the Chancellor.
“I am making the strongest case to the Chancellor, as I'm sure all of my colleagues across government are. Those are private discussions as part of an internal spending review. I won't be commenting on them as those conversations take place. We will have more to say when that review concludes and we are able to make our announcements. But what I am absolutely committed to is making sure that I can get the prison system in this country in a position where we are not running out of places on a regular basis and where I can guarantee that there will always be a prison place available for dangerous offenders who pose a risk to the public.”
She may be making the strongest case she can to the Chancellor, but justice is an unprotected department - meaning budget cuts are likely.
And with those cuts- it is hard to see how the department build and staff new prisons. It also leaves the question of how far her sentencing changes might have to go.
