On 10 July 2020, the Ministry of Justice released data on the spread of COVID-19 in the prison and probation service in England and Wales. 44 deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic – 23 of which were prisoners and 21 were probation service users.  

As of 3 July 2020, the prison population was 79,500, showing a reduction of over 4,400 since 13 March 2020. This has primarily been driven by a reduction in inflows from the courts due to COVID-19 disruption. 209 of these prisoners were realised under COVID-19 temporary release schemes designed for low-risk offenders near to the end of their custodial sentence and other risk-assessed vulnerable prisoners, including pregnant women and mothers with babies. 

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