In February, Britain’s justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, traveled to Texas. As a lawmaker from the center-left Labour Party, her trip to the Republican state was somewhat off-brand, but she was on a serious mission: to try to find solutions to Britain’s chronic prison overcrowding crisis. During a visit to Estelle Supermax Penitentiary in Huntsville, Ms. Mahmood spoke to inmates and officers about their experiences. She was accompanied by David Gauke, a former Conservative Party politician, who had been asked by the government to draw up a plan for tackling Britain’s shortage of prison cells. It recommended the government adopt a policy being used in Texas, and indeed more widely across the United States, allowing inmates to earn early release through good behavior.
