18/02/2022
Police Oracle
Work With Offenders looks at the latest details of new and refurbished prisons.
The Ministry of Justice today announced the latest stage in its huge prison expansion programme which aims to create an additional 20,000 modern prison places by the mid-2020s. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab (perhaps the only Justice Secretary never to use his title of office, preferring always to be referred to as Deputy Prime Minister) announced details for 4,000 new prison places created across 16 prisons through a combination of building new wings and refurbishing existing places.
Subject to planning permission, eight prisons (HMPs Bullingdon, Channings Wood, Elmley, Highpoint, Hindley, Wayland, Guys Marsh, and Stocken) will receive new houseblocks while HMP High Down in Surrey will get a new workshop. The MoJ says that innovative designs will mean easier access to supporting facilities such as healthcare, kitchens and staff offices which will help to protect frontline staff and clamp down on crime behind bars. This objective relates to the consequences of the very restricted regimes operated throughout the pandemic. Although the regimes clearly had a very negative impact on prisoners’ mental and physical wellbeing, they almost permanent restriction to cells did cut down on the levels of violence. It seems that the government is now looking to design out unnecessary mixing of prison wings, although Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor has already made clear his frustration at the apparent desire to restrict almost all social activity amongst people in prison.
Seven other prisons will also receive what is described as “comprehensive refurbishments” as part of a wider £150m investment in the estate to modernise the prison estate. These seven prisons are: HMPs Norwich, Birmingham, Liverpool, Haverigg, HMPYOIs Feltham, Aylesbury and HMP/YOI Swinfen Hall, with work at the last four already completed.
Construction of two new prisons (at Glen Parva, Leicestershire, and HMP Five Wells, Wellingborough) is almost complete and another four new prisons are planned.
Rationale
The government claims that the prison building programme is needed because the prison population is expected to increase by 19,000 by the mid-2020s as the government “cracks down on crime” and recruits 20,000 new police officers. Penal reformers have questioned the need for new prisons, pointing out that (along with Scotland) England and Wales imprisons a larger proportion of our citizens than any other country in Western Europe.
They also point to yesterday’s statistics on what the MoJ terms “first time entrants” to the criminal justice system, that is to say individuals who received an officially recorded caution or conviction for an offence for the first occasion in their lives. The figures revealed that just 8,695 children (aged under 18 years old) received a caution or conviction for the first time in 2021. This compares to 9,380 in 2020 and 41,044 in 2011. The equivalent figures for adults revealed that 82,046 people received a caution or conviction for the first time in 2021. This figure compares to 76,239 in 2020 (when there were more lockdowns) & 173,201 in 2011.
Reformers ask why we need more prisons when the number of people getting into trouble with the law has fallen so drastically over the last decade. The number of so-called “juvenile first time offenders” has dropped by a staggering 79% in the last ten years with the fall in the equivalent for adult first times being a very significant 53%.
Over the last two years, the government has been keen to emphasise the economic benefits of new prisons, citing the number of construction jobs and new prison officer posts required to run the new jails. Campaigners say they would rather see that money invested in our ailing health and social care sectors.