Prison sell-off may fund village jail plan
By Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson
Last Updated: 2:26am BST 12/05/2007
Britain's large Victorian prisons could be sold off and replaced with dozens of small specialist units under plans being drawn up by the Government.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Lord Falconer, the new Justice Secretary, said the prison estate needed to be transformed to make the incarceration of prisoners - particularly women, young people and mentally ill offenders - more humane.
However, the plan is likely to prove highly controversial and raises the prospect of dozens of small prisons opening up in towns and villages all over the country.
Under the plan thousands of prisoners could be kept in local secure units housing around 15 in-mates each.
"This could be a way both of providing public protection and reducing offending," Lord Falconer said. "The more flexible your provision can be, the better."
But David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "What is vital is that the Government actually addresses the chronic lack of capacity in our prisons. Replacement units should not be confused with extra units."
Lord Carter of Coles has been appointed to draw up proposals for changing the way in which Britain's jails are run over the next 10 years.
In particular, Lord Cole has been asked to consider the practicality of selling off large Victorian prisons such as Pentonville, Brixton, Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs and using the money to set up smaller, more specialist units.
One estimate puts the value of the inner city prison sites at £350 million.
Comment: Ever since the Strangeways Prison riot in April 1990, Lord Woolf and I have been advocating that smaller more manageable units are the way forward. It would now appear that this common sense approach is to be tried.
As ever, the less than common sense ramblings from David Davis are apparent. If he has got nothing positive to say, would it not be better if he said nothing at all?
I personally think also that this is a good idea. The overcrowded prison environment at the moment bunches together shedloads of people, regardless of the level of their crime and puts pussies in together with wildcats. This can only lead to tension and depression, possibly leading to suicide for the type of chap who has been jailed for such heinous crimes such as council tax evasion.
ReplyDeleteNot only is this a good idea for the inmate, it is highly beneficial to the screws who have to handle the prison populace. (sorry, "wardens")
This gets my vote wholeheartedly.