1st May 2009
By David Williams
MPs have welcomed the government’s decision to ditch controversial plans for three new ‘Titan’ prisons.
But the Commons justice select committee still criticised the apparent commitment to a ‘titanic’ prison population.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw said on April 27 that an additional 7,500 prison places would be provided, but would be spread across five facilities of 1,500 places each rather than in three mega-prisons of 2,500 places.
Committee chair Sir Alan Beith said: ‘We have repeatedly said that the government’s focus on huge public investment in building more places in a few “mega prisons” is a risky strategy based on a flimsy evidence base.
‘However, we are concerned that today’s proposals demonstrate that this government is still committed to achieving the highest prison population in western Europe.’
The UK’s prison population is set to reach 96,000 by 2014.
The new prison places would cost £490m a year to run, Beith said, when ‘alternatives to prison would have greater potential to reduce crime and reoffending’.
