Warning for UK over Titan prisons

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7770672.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Building giant Titan prison complexes in the UK would undermine the rehabilitation of offenders, a leading US civil rights lawyer will warn.

Professor Bryan Stevenson, of New York University, will say the 2,500-place prisons would take Britain towards an "American-style" justice system.

He is due to make his comments in a lecture to the Prison Reform Trust.

The Ministry of Justice said the three planned English prisons would provide "value for money" for the taxpayer.

Three Titan prisons are planned for London, the West Midlands and the north west of England by 2014.

Professor Stevenson will say: "This is a time when fear and anger about crime and security is very high, which is why our thinking about crime policy has to be sober, sensible and effective. It is shaming enough to be the greatest incarcerator in western Europe without slavishly copying America's failing prison system Juliet Lyon, Prison Reform Trust

"The US has made serious mistakes with its criminal justice policy over the last 35 years, the UK should learn from these mistakes, reject the idea of Titan prisons and pursue cost-effective, humane and responsible strategies that avoid mass incarceration and inspires hopefulness rather than the inevitability of imprisonment which has so devastated many American communities."

'Value for money'

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said the UK should not copy the system employed in the US.

"In fairness to victims we should be helping people break free from addictions, stop binge-drinking, diverting the mentally ill into proper healthcare and making sure that petty offenders do community service to pay back for the harm they have done, not building super-sized prisons.

"It is shaming enough to be the greatest incarcerator in western Europe without slavishly copying America's failing prison system."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "We have already made clear that we are not going to build giant warehouses.

"It is envisaged that each complex will be made up of smaller units - for example, five units of 500 places within one prison.

"We want to bring the resources we have to reduce re-offending together in one place.

"Our aim is to provide better value for money for the taxpayer and better opportunities to rehabilitate prisoners so that they don't offend again.

"The complexes will also be situated close to those areas which generate the greatest volume of offenders, therefore ensuring that important family and other links can be maintained."