16k Extra Days For East Midlands Prisoners

Inmates are getting longer sentences for bad behaviour while behind bars.

A report's found prisoners in the East Midlands spent a total of an extra 16,000 days behind bars for breaking prison rules last.

The number of young people in jail - getting extra time for bad behaviour has doubled in 2 years in the region.

The charity the Howard League for Penal Reform says it's causing overcrowding and most rule breaking is down to the conditions inside.

The hearings to give out the punishments have cost £500,000.

Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "‎The system of adjudications has become a monster, imposing fearsome punishments when people misbehave often as a result of the dreadful conditions they are subjected to.

"This bureaucratic, costly and time-consuming system of punishments then further feeds pressure on the prisons, creating a vicious cycle of troubled prisons and troubling prisoners.

"The principle of independent adjudication where liberty is at risk is an important one. ‎But prisons have come to rely too heavily on the threat of additional days. The Ministry of Justice should curtail the use of additional days in all but the most serious cases.

"The overuse of adjudications is not seen as fair, it is not fair, and the imposition of additional days is very expensive and counterproductive."

Looking at some of the prisons in the region, Leicester handed out at extra 1,247 days whilst Nottingham added on 1,186 to some prisoners' terms.

Capital spoke to Andrew Neilson from The Howard League for Penal Reform: