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Reid to unveil prison crisis plan Cells plan to ease prisons crisis
(about 7 hours later)
Home Secretary John Reid is due to announce measures to reduce prison overcrowding in England and Wales. Up to 500 places will be available in police cells by Thursday to help ease the shortage of prison space in England and Wales, John Reid has said.
The plans - to be announced in a Commons statement - could mean police cells being used to house prisoners and some inmates moving to open prisons. Speaking to MPs, the home secretary announced several initiatives including funding of up to £2,500 when foreign inmates agree to be repatriated.
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said prison overcrowding was due to "serial neglect by the government". He said "maximum flexibility" would be provided for transfers to open jails.
Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has said the use of open prisons will not expose people to dangerous criminals. The prison population reached a record 79,843 at the weekend, and in theory there were just 125 more spaces left.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that, later today, the home secretary will make an announcement on measures he plans to take regarding prison spaces." The prison figure fell by 24 on Monday, according to official statistics.
The facts and figures behind prisons in the UKIn detail
It appears increasingly likely that Operation Safeguard - the contingency plan for the co-ordinated use of police cells - will be activated in the near future.
The prison population fell by 24 on Monday, according to official figures.
It had reached a record 79,843 this weekend, and in theory there were just 125 more spaces available.
Prisoner numbers have risen by more than 600 in the past six weeks, and are likely to continue to rise until Christmas.Prisoner numbers have risen by more than 600 in the past six weeks, and are likely to continue to rise until Christmas.
However, ministers will not sanction Operation Safeguard unless they absolutely have to - not least because of the cost. 'Tried and tested'
It is almost four times as expensive as holding an inmate in prison. The use of police cells to house inmates is dubbed "Operation Safeguard".
But even if cell space is found for the next couple of months, questions remain about capacity. Mr Reid said: "The use of Safeguard is not ideal. But it is tried and it is tested."
The government is promising an extra 8,000 prison places - but that will be enough only if the prison population rises in line with the Home Office's lowest forecasts. href="/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/uk_prisons_in_the_uk/html/1.stm" onClick="window.open('http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/uk_prisons_in_the_uk/html/1.stm', '1144060400', 'toolbar=0,scrollbars=0,location=0,statusbar=0,menubar=0,resizable=1,width=500,height=400,left=312,top=100'); return false;">The facts and figures behind prisons in the UK href="/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/uk_prisons_in_the_uk/html/1.stm" onClick="window.open('http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/uk_prisons_in_the_uk/html/1.stm', '1144060400', 'toolbar=0,scrollbars=0,location=0,statusbar=0,menubar=0,resizable=1,width=500,height=400,left=312,top=100'); return false;" >In detail
'Human warehouses' He announced a 12-month pilot scheme for foreign prisoners who agree to serve their sentences abroad. The scheme only applies to those from countries outside the European Economic Area.
BBC home affairs correspondent Margaret Gilmore said the Association of Chief Police Officers had a prepared plan and stations were ready to take the prisoners. They would receive between £500 and £2,500 - not in cash, but "in kind" to pay for reintegration support in the form of education, accommodation, medical care, training or assistance with starting a business.
It's going to take some time to persuade the public that if somebody isn't sent to prison they are still being punished John Denham href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=4154&edition=1" class="">Send us your comments A Home Office spokeswoman pointed out the money compared with £28,000 which was the average cost of housing an inmate for a year.
The home secretary is also trying to make it easier to allow foreign prisoners to serve their sentence abroad. She said there were currently 10,970 foreign nationals serving sentences in British prisons, around 8,000 of whom came from outside the European Economic Area.
But our correspondent said Mr Reid would also increasingly come under pressure to focus more on rehabilitation schemes such as community service. Inmates from non-EU countries Jamaicans - 1,539Nigerians - 990Pakistanis - 437Somalians - 343Source: Home Office
Mr Davis said the problem of overcrowding was a "very serious consequence of serial neglect on the part of the government". BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the government was also moving to change the law to remove the need for the consent of prisoners before they can serve their sentences elsewhere.
He told the BBC that prisons were becoming "human warehouses" because of overcrowding, which meant "rehabilitation programmes" were being disrupted because inmates were "being moved around to make room for other prisoners". The other main points of the home secretary's announcement were:
Mr Davis said a Conservative government would build more prisons as this was something which was "unavoidable".
  • The government will no longer attempt to fight appeals against deportation by criminals from the European Economic Area
  • The possibility of introducing an early release scheme for prisoners at a later date is not ruled out but would be a "last resort"
  • Converting a former army barracks in Dover into new accommodation for prisoners to provide an extra 200 places by December
  • Plans to use a former secure hospital in Ashworth East near Liverpool to offer a further 350 places
  • Support for the use of community sentences for non-violent and non-sexual offenders, if appropriate
  • Two women's prisons would take male prisoners
    • Public perceptions Shadow home secretary David Davis told the Commons: "Frankly there is no excuse for the catastrophe facing the country today.
    Labour MP John Denham, who chairs the government's home affairs select committee, said: "It's fairly obvious that we need to use more non-custodial sentences for the type of prisoners who need some punishment, but who don't have to be locked up to protect the public. HAVE YOUR SAY If the only way to protect the public is to build more prisons, then so be it Ian Jerram, Chesterfield href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=4154&edition=1" class="">Send us your comments
    "But it's going to take some time to persuade the public that if somebody isn't sent to prison they are still being punished and they still actually do a sentence that means something." "In the last five years the government have had warning after warning that they were going to run out of cells."
    The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Maltravers, this weekend urged more use of community sentences, saying prison overcrowding made it difficult to rehabilitate inmates. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: "Public safety is yet again at stake because of government incompetence.
    Some campaigners also contend prisoners who commit crimes to feed drug and alcohol addictions can often be better served outside jails. "The home secretary's sticking plaster solutions are too little, too late. You should have the courage and the foresight to think anew."
    Juliet Lyon, the director of the Prison Reform Trust, told the BBC treating petty offenders in the community was "one of the ways in which you can begin to try and change the pattern of crime and offending". Police Federation vice-chairman Alan Gordon said he had "grave fears" over the use of Operation Safeguard.
    "Not least because the resilience of the service is already stretched to breaking point, but being a full-time jailer requires a completely different set of skills and training to that of being a police officer," he said.
    Hilary Banks, the Association of Chief Police Officers' spokeswoman for Operation Safeguard, said: "We all accept that it isn't an ideal situation and we're obviously dealing with extreme circumstances here."