10 October 2003
Home Secretary David Blunkett's plans to build two 'super prisons' to combat the UK's rapidly growing inmate population are unnecessary and ill-considered, it was claimed this week.
The Prison Reform Trust warned that embryonic plans to construct two 1,500-inmate jails – one near London and one in the Midlands – would not tackle the underlying causes of escalating prisoner numbers, such as the government's failure to encourage wider use of non-custodial sentences.
The influential lobby group also told Public Finance that the impact of the new prisons would be neutral if the Treasury insisted on closing several dilapidated Victorian prisons on the back of the new sites being completed, as has been reported.
Enver Soloman, policy officer at the PRT, said: 'We shouldn't be building more prisons - we should be concentrating on reducing the current population. Around 58% of inmates on sentences less than six months are effectively in jail for a few weeks. Constructive work to prevent reoffending – which fuels the overcrowding of jails – cannot be undertaken in that time.'
Soloman claimed that effective non-custodial sentencing of lesser offenders would reduce prison numbers by 6,000 – double the number that would be housed in the two new sites. 'A further 1,000-plus female prisoners could be released on community sentences and hundreds of inmates suffering mental health problems should also be released – that is effective [prison] population reduction.'
Following proposals in the 2002 white paper, Justice for all, the Home Office has confirmed that Blunkett is seeking two sites on which to build the giant prisons. He has a budget of around £32m to buy the land. A spokeswoman for the Home Office said 'consultations are taking place across the criminal justice system about the development and operation of these establishments'.
But the PRT claimed it was 'nigh on certain' that both would be funded through the Private Finance Initiative after it was revealed that the 2001 Carter review of PFI prisons recommended the idea of larger jails.
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