MORE than 52,000 days of additional imprisonment – a total of more than 144 years – were imposed on prisoners for breaking the rules in prisons in the North West region last year, research by the Howard League for Penal Reform reveals today.

The charity’s report, The rising tide: Additional days for rule-breaking in prison, claims the disciplinary system in prisons has become unsustainable, with the number of additional days handed down in North West jails rising by 42 per cent in 12 months – from 36,993 in 2016 to 52,656 in 2017.

In Cumbria's prison - Haverigg - the number of inmates last July stood at 285. In 2017, 743 extra days of imprisonment were added at Haverigg, a reduction from 2,392 extra days in 2016.

The Howard League says prisons, brought to breaking point by overcrowding and staff shortages, have increasingly resorted to draconian measures, and claims this has coincided with rising levels of self-injury behind bars.

Across England and Wales, the total number of additional days handed down has more than doubled in three years – from fewer than 160,000 in 2014 to almost 360,000 in 2017. It means that almost 1,000 years of extra imprisonment were imposed last year.

The Howard League’s report also highlights good practice at prisons that have managed to buck the trend – either by using restorative approaches or by training and empowering staff to respond to conflict in other ways.

Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "The explosion in the use of additional days of imprisonment has been a catastrophe for the prison system. Rather than solving problems, it has created new ones – piling more pressure on the prison population and worsening overcrowding, which in turn leads to more drug abuse and violence.

"These figures illustrate the urgent need for reform. We need to see a culture change in jails, from top to bottom. A prison that resorts again and again to further punishment is an unhealthy prison.

"Scrapping the imposition of additional days would make prisons safer, fairer and less likely to churn out people who go on to reoffend in the community."