Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Justice whether any assessment has been made of trends in the level of prison population.
Minister of Justice: Northern Ireland is no different to the rest of the UK, in that there has been no respite in growth of the prison population. The table below shows the total NI prison population on 1 April between 2022 and 2026.
| Year | Total |
| 2022 | 1,552 |
| 2023 | 1,822 |
| 2024 | 1,886 |
| 2025 | 1,964 |
| 2026 | 2,079 |
That is rapid, unprecedented growth and extremely challenging for the Prison Service to manage.
ENDS
Your MLA 