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<table><tbody><tr><td><p>HMPPS is committed to ensuring, where practicable, that prisoners
are accommodated as close as possible to their resettlement communities and families.
Whilst this is a priority, it is not always possible due to a variety of factors including
wider population pressures, or where individuals have specific sentence planning needs
which can only be met at certain establishments. Closeness to home is particularly
important for those on short sentences or nearing release, where they need to build
family ties, secure housing and health services and look for work. These prisoners
are prioritised for being held in prisons local to home. As at 31st March 2019, the
number of sentenced prisoners who commenced their custodial sentence in 2018 and are
located more than 30 miles from their origin location was 8,911. Around 97% of prisoners
have an origin location, which is an address that is recorded in our central IT system.
If no address is given, an offender’s committal court address, next-of-kin or discharge
address is used as a proxy for the area in which they are resident. Those with no
recorded origin are typically foreign nationals or those recently received into custody.
No address has been recorded and no court information is available for around 3% of
all offenders. These figures are excluded from the answer provided. For the purposes
of this answer we have identified all prisoners that had commenced their custodial
sentence in 2018. Prisoners held on remand, non-criminal prisoners and those that
commenced their custodial sentence prior to 2018 (or since in 2019), have been excluded.
Recalled prisoners that commenced their original sentence in 2018, and were released
and subsequently recalled, and were held in custody on 31 March 2019 have been included.
All data are based on the straight line travelling distance between each prisoners
current location and their recorded origin location.</p></td></tr></tbody></table>
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