Government to accelerate building of prison places with £110m – minister

Alex Norris will set out plans to speed up the building of new prison places as part of the Government’s efforts to tackle overcrowding in the prisons estate.

Mr Norris is expected to announce the plans on Tuesday, when he will set out to MPs details of an early release scheme designed to deal with the situation.

Alongside the cash, which has been fast-tracked from existing budgets, the Government is also converting unused spaces inside prisons into new cells as part of the plans.

Justice Secretary Mr Norris said: “This Government is serious about fixing the broken prison system we inherited, which is why we’ve already delivered more than 3,200 prison places in just two years.

“We’re now investing to boost these efforts further – getting spades in the ground quicker to deliver thousands more places to lock up dangerous criminals and keep the public safe.”

Elsewhere, ministers have signed a contract which will pave the way for a new 1,700-place prison in Lancashire.

Over the weekend, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced that the killers of Thames Valley police officer Andrew Harper will not be eligible for early release, following a backlash.

Mr Burnham initially resisted calls to limit the scheme further after it emerged that Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were convicted of Pc Harper’s manslaughter in 2020, would be eligible from next year.

Some offenders serving indefinite jail sentences, which were abolished in 2012, will also be freed through legislation to be brought forward by the end of this Parliament, the Prime Minister pledged.

Some 5,000 prisoners had been due to be released early from October under plans to ease jail overcrowding, down from 6,000 after ministers intervened to exempt rapists and “serious” child sex offenders.

Extra space in prisons is also set to be created by deporting foreign prisoners and releasing inmates who are serving indefinite sentences under imprisonment for public protection sentences (IPPs).

But the changes to IPPs could take years to implement and will not be part of the initial measures to ease overcrowding.

Thames Valley’s chief constable Jason Hogg warned on Monday that having to tag and monitor prisoners granted early release would be “difficult” for forces across the country.

He said: “The police haven’t received any additional funding for this additional work, so I’m going to be having to move resources away from one area of business to another to seek out, arrest, and bring before the court individuals who don’t follow the restrictions that they will be set.

“For example, their tagging restrictions. We don’t quite know what the demand will be on that, but I think it’ll be reasonably high, so it’s definitely more work for us.”

Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said: “It is absurd for Labour to talk about a ‘prison building boom’ when there are 700 fewer prison places than a year ago.

“And the flagship prison in this announcement – which contains no new funding – was put in motion by the last Conservative government.

“In a matter of weeks thousands of dangerous criminals will be released on to our streets thanks to Andy Burnham, including perpetrators of some of the most vile crimes.

“He must bring emergency legislation before Parliament as a matter of utmost urgency to stop this scandal and keep the public safe.”