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<p /> <p>We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts
and have a range of contingencies in place to manage temporary or unexpected increases
in the population.</p><p>Prison population projections are a useful tool in our strategic
management of prison capacity but do not offer a definitive picture of future population
levels. Decisions on the number of spaces required in 2021 will depend on population
trends and projections over the coming years.</p><p>The table below identifies the
in-use certified normal accommodation and total operational capacity by National Offender
Management Service region (and Wales) and the number of male and female prisoners
by region of origin on the latest dates available.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Region/Country*</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>19
Dec 2014 In Use Certified Normal Accommodation</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>19
Dec 2014 Total Operational Capacity</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>30 Sep 2014-12-09
Population by region of origin***</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Proportion of the
prison population originated in each region by %</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>East
Midlands</strong></p></td><td><p>9,023</p></td><td><p>10,472</p></td><td><p>6,733</p></td><td><p>7.86%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>East
of England</strong></p></td><td><p>8,146</p></td><td><p>9,102</p></td><td><p>6,075</p></td><td><p>7.09%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Greater
London</strong></p></td><td><p>8,915</p></td><td><p>11,243</p></td><td><p>17,611</p></td><td><p>20.60%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Kent</strong><strong>
and Sussex</strong></p></td><td><p>5,780</p></td><td><p>6,275</p></td><td><p>3,778</p></td><td><p>4.41%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>North
East</strong></p></td><td><p>4,846</p></td><td><p>5,522</p></td><td><p>4,043</p></td><td><p>4.72%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>North
West</strong></p></td><td><p>10,837</p></td><td><p>13,055</p></td><td><p>13,522</p></td><td><p>15.80%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>South
Central</strong></p></td><td><p>4,534</p></td><td><p>5,382</p></td><td><p>4,216</p></td><td><p>4.92%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>South
West</strong></p></td><td><p>5,358</p></td><td><p>6,108</p></td><td><p>5,280</p></td><td><p>6.20%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Wales</strong></p></td><td><p>2,329</p></td><td><p>3,279</p></td><td><p>4,729</p></td><td><p>5.52%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>West
Midlands</strong></p></td><td><p>8,840</p></td><td><p>9,812</p></td><td><p>8,111</p></td><td><p>9.50%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Yorkshire
& Humberside</strong></p></td><td><p>8,150</p></td><td><p>9,866</p></td><td><p>9,463</p></td><td><p>11.04%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Unknown</strong></p></td><td><p>
</p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p>2,137</p></td><td><p>2.25%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>76,758</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>90,116</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>85,698</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>99.91</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>* Contracted and High
Security prisons have been allocated to the geographical region in which they are
located.</p><p>** Total operational capacity of a prison is the total number of prisoners
that an establishment can hold taking into account control, security and the proper
operation of the planned regime. Useable Operational Capacity of the estate is the
sum of all establishments’ operational capacity less 2,000 places. This is known as
the operating margin and reflects the constraints imposed by the need to provide separate
accommodation for different classes of prisoner i.e. by sex, age, security category,
conviction status, single cell risk assessment and also due to geographical distribution.
This margin is applied to the whole estate but is not segmented by prison function
or region.</p><p>*** Region/country of origin is based on prisoners’ recorded residences.
Information on prisoners is provided by them on reception in prison and recorded on
a central IT system. Reported addresses can include a home address, an address to
which offenders intend to return on discharge or the address of their next of kin.
If no address is given, an offender’s committal court address is used as a proxy for
the area in which they are resident. No address has been recorded and no court information
is available for around 3% of all offenders.</p><p>Individual prison population and
capacity information for every prison in England and Wales is published monthly on
the Government website:</p><p><a title="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-population-figures-2014"
href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-population-figures-2014" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-population-figures-2014</a></p><p>As
far as possible, NOMS endeavours to place prisoners as close to their home area as
possible. However, a number of factors are considered in the allocation of each prisoner,
including; location of prisons, court appearance, security concerns - both for the
individual and for others at the establishment, suitability of establishment to prisoners’
needs (such as those set out in their sentence plan), regimes and services offered.
It may therefore not be possible or desirable to keep prisoners close to home. For
example, some specialist interventions and offending behaviour programmes are not
available in every region.</p><p>Under the Government's Transforming Rehabilitation
agenda most prisoners will serve the last 12 weeks of their sentence and be discharged
from a Resettlement Prison in their home Contract Package Area where they will receive
tailored interventions and support.</p>
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