By Vivienne Russell | 10 January 2013
Six ‘old and expensive’ publicly run prisons will close and three others will have their capacity reduced, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has announced.
This will reduce the number of prison places by 2,600. At the same time, a feasibility study will look at building a new super prison and accommodation will be increased on four existing sites.
The jails set to close are Canterbury, Gloucester, Kingston, Shepton Mallet, Shrewsbury and Bullwood Hall in Essex, which are managed by the Prison Service and cater for adult, male prisoners. The Ministry of Justice said they were all small, old and expensive.
The new jail will be Britain’s biggest, capable of holding more than 2,000 prisoners. Sites in the Northwest, North Wales and London are being considered.
The prisons losing some accommodation are Isle of Wight, Chelmsford and Hull while those gaining new places are Parc in South Wales, Peterborough, and Thameside in London, which are privately run, and The Mount in Hertfordshire. In total, these new houseblocks will be able to hold up to 1,260 prisoners.
Altogether, these efforts to remodel the prison estate are expected to bring down operating costs and save £63m a year.
In a written statement, Grayling said: ‘At present, we have buildings within the prison estate which date back to the eighteenth century. Prisons are not all located where we would want them to be to best meet the needs of the courts or support resettlement and there is an annual maintenance cost of approximately £184m.
‘There is clear evidence that by replacing old uneconomic places with modern prison capacity we can drive substantial savings for the taxpayer and I am determined to do just that.’
Grayling also announced that MoJ officials would undertake a review of custodial arrangements for women prisoners, which would conclude by the summer.
The Public and Commercial Services union slammed the closures as ‘irresponsible’ at a time when prison overcrowding was widespread. It added that reducing the capacity in public sector prisons, while boosting it in private prisons amounted to privatisation by stealth.
‘The fact this is happening without any public debate or discussion ought to be a national scandal and we urgently need an independent review to look at the impact of prison privatisation on our communities, staff and prisoners,’ said PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka.
