HMP Durham listed as third most overcrowded in March
The Howard League for Penal Reform has released its latest figures
Durham prison's been listed as the third most overcrowded in England and Wales.
Latest figures by the Howard League of Penal Reform shows HMP Durham was 159% full in March.
Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the charity, said: "Durham jail is a jail that is also sort of struggling, but you know it rates as very poor, for example, for purposeful activity for getting people out of their cells and into meaningful activity, so prisons like Durham are failing to provide that.
"Fundamentally, I think the public have an expectation that there'll be rehabilitation for people when they go to prison. And that's impossible to execute if you're locked up in your cell all day with no work or education. You know, it's very difficult to kind of skill up and turn your life around.
"The Government needs to have a serious conversation with the public about what prison should be used for and what prison can and can't achieve. I mean, we already have among the longer sentences in Europe, we have more people per head of population than anywhere else in Europe.
"We resort very quickly to putting people in jail as opposed to coming up with solutions that address their problems and that's what other countries do. They look at what's caused the offending and often that is drugs and alcohol and mental health and address the causes of that. We don't. We just lock them up for 22 hours of a day, release them to homelessness and expect them to behave."
The Government says it's committed up to £7 billion over the next five years to deliver 14,000 new prison places by 2031.
They add that the Sentencing Act will help tackle the situation of overcrowding and said: "This will keep dangerous criminals locked up, while bringing in tough new punishments that cut crime. To keep the public safe, more criminals will be tagged than ever before, and the probation service will be backed with £700 million extra funding.  
"The Act will also make changes to the recall system, with offenders who breach the conditions of their licence returned to prison for a set 56 days. This will cut the number of prisoners waiting for a Parole Board decision after being returned to custody for often minor infractions and give the Probation Service more time to prepare for a release. The most serious and violent offenders will be excluded from this change, who will only be released after they are considered by the Parole Board."