Government accused of 'underhand tactics' in prison management

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/13/labour-blames-government-for-prison-place-shortage

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The government is resorting to "underhand tactics" to cover up its mistakes on the management of prisons by buying in hundreds of extra emergency places for inmates from the private sector, Labour has said.

After 40 prisons were put on notice to raise their "operational capacity", Labour's shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan blamed the "cack-handed" closure of nearly 20 prisons for the decision to ask private companies to provide an extra 412 places at a cost of millions of pounds.

Khan has written to Margaret Hodge, the chair of the Commons public accounts committee, to ask her to examine the "unacceptable" way in which the government is seeking to hide its embarrassment by refusing to disclose the cost of the extra prison places.

Khan spoke out after Jeremy Wright, the justice minister, announced in a parliamentary written answer that 412 extra places at six private prisons have been purchased by the Ministry of Justice since February this year. They range from 100 places at Altcourse prison covering eleven months to thirty two places at Lowdham Grange over six months.

Wright declined to disclose the costs of the prison places on the grounds that the information is "commercially sensitive". A place in the HMP Oakwood private prison costs £13,200 a year while the average cost of a Category C prisoner is £31,339 a year.

The disclosure came as the BBC revealed that 40 prisons – all but six of which are running at or above full capacity – have been told they need to find accommodation for an extra 440 prisoners by August. One of the prisons – Wandsworth in south west London which has an official capacity of 972 – already has more than 1,500 inmates.

Khan blamed the need to resort to the private sector for emergency prison places on the decision to close 18 prisons in recent years at a time when the prison population is increasing. The number of prisoners in England and Wales stood at 85,410 on Friday.

Labour acknowledges that the National Offender Management Service, which manages the prison estate in England and Wales on behalf of the MoJ, has opened two new prisons. They are the controversially private run HMP Oakwood and HMP Thameside which is also privately run.

Khan told the Guardian: "The acute shortage of places is one of this government's making. Chris Grayling [justice secretary] has closed down so many prisons so quickly – many of them high performing prisons – that he's been left with no space. He's had to resort to underhand tactics to cover up his mistakes.

"Now he's had to buy emergency prison places from big private providers, but refuses to say how much this is costing the taxpayer. It's an utter disgrace and an insult to the British public that he refuses to admit how much his failures are costing the taxpayer. If he hadn't been so cack-handed in closing down good prisons, he wouldn't be lumbering the taxpayer with these extra costs."

The MoJ said that there are 1,021 spare prison places – the difference between the size of the prison estate (86,431) and the number of prisoners (85,410). Grayling acknowledged that there has been a small increase in the prison population in recent months, prompting the MoJ to open up its reserve capacity and to take on up to 100 former prison officers on short term contracts. An additional 2,000 adult male prison places will also be opened up over the next nine months to ensure there are more places in this category than the government inherited in 2010.

The justice secretary said: "I make no apology that we are sending more criminals to prison – that's what the public want. I'm just taking sensible steps to make sure we can accommodate everyone the court sends to us. I'll take no lessons on this issue from the Labour party who let thousands of dangerous prisoners out onto our streets early because they failed to provide enough places."