Vicar supports town prison plan

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A clergyman has claimed a former army barracks in Dover is an "eminently sensible" site for an open prison.

Father Peter Sherred, a priest in the town, also said a campaign against the planned prison was wrong and had made Dover seem intolerant and prejudiced.

In October Tony Blair said he would discuss plans for an open prison at Connaught Barracks with the town's MP.

And campaigners have handed in a 12,000-name petition against the proposals to the home secretary.

Speaking to BBC Radio Kent, Mr Sherred said Connaught Barracks made an "ideal site" if people understood what an open prison was.

The inmates are going to be coming into a hostile environment seemingly of a town totally against them Father Peter Sherred

"It is for people who are going to be reintegrated back into society in a short period of time... we really haven't looked at the dignity of a human being that is in an open prison."

He said the site was in a sensible location on a peripheral part of town.

"If people are concerned about the value of their property then I think they should come up front and say that is the basis for their concern, but what we have heard is a lot of misinformation.

"One incident recorded to me was of a person collecting a petition by indicating to people that we were going to have murderers, rapists, paedophiles and sexual offenders in the open prison, which is blatantly wrong because the minister has said this is not the case."

Mr Sherred added that it was not only the fears and challenges of local residents that should be met, but there ought to be a "pastoral awareness" of people coming into the prison.

"If the open prison is now established we also have to recognise that the inmates are going to be coming into a hostile environment seemingly of a town totally against them."

In October Dover District Council's leader, Councillor Paul Watkins, said the authority was prepared to consider a legal challenge against the plans.