Prison cells in foreign countries could be rented out by ministers in a desperate bid to deal with a shortage of jail space.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk used his speech at the Tory Party conference to announce plans to “explore renting overseas capacity”. Speaking on the main stage, he said: “We’re expanding and refurbishing existing prisons and hiring thousands more prison officers. And I can tell you today conference that we also intend to look at the Norwegian example and explore renting overseas capacity.”
But prison experts hit back at the “half-baked idea” and said jail leaders will “be in despair at such a superficial response to their very real and urgent concerns”. It follows a warning from the prison watchdog that prisons in England and Wales will run out of space within three years.
The Government’s plan to create 20,000 extra prison places by the mid 2020s is reportedly delayed due to planning disagreements. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says that while progress is made on the prison build programme, all necessary measures need to be taken to ensure “dangerous criminals continue to see the inside of a prison cell”.
The Conservative Party said it expects around 8,000 places to have been delivered by 2025, which includes refurbished cells. It said short-term measures, such as making prisoners share cells, have also been put in place to expand capacity.
The MoJ said the new plans to put prisoners in foreign jails will be introduced through legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows. The proposed law would allow the Government to work with international partners to house prisoners offshore, with exploratory discussions with possible countries in Europe having already taken place or ongoing. Agreements would take into account whether the country’s prison facilities, regime and rehabilitation meets British standards.
Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “There’s no greater symbol of the way in which the Tories have run our criminal justice system into the ground, than the fact they are ‘exploring’ putting prisoners in foreign jails because they are incapable of building the prisons places this country needs to keep our people safe.
“After 10 justice secretaries in 10 years, we saw no acknowledgement of their failings across the criminal justice system – from the crumbling prison estate, to the courts backlog, and sky-high reoffending rates. Labour will get on top of the prison crisis by delivering all 20,000 prison places we need, driving down the courts backlog by increasing the number of crown prosecutors to put criminals behind bars and by opening specialist rape courts.”
Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “The government’s response to dangerous and growing levels of overcrowding in our prisons is a half-baked idea to rent foreign prison places. Prison leaders will be in despair at such a superficial response to their very real and urgent concerns. The red warning light of a looming capacity crisis has been flashing on the prison service dashboard for a number of months. Ministers can’t say they haven’t been warned. They urgently need to bring forward practical plans to reduce pressure on the system, including the executive release of some prisoners. The risks of not doing so are too perilous to ignore.”
Mr Chalk added: “This government is doing more than any since the Victorian era to expand prison capacity. Alongside our extra 20,000 prison places programme, refurbishment of old prisons and rapid deployment cells, renting prison places in other countries will ensure that we always have the space to keep the public safe from the most dangerous offenders.”
Prisons Minister Damian Hinds said: “Public protection is our top priority which is why we are rightly locking up the most dangerous offenders for longer. To do that, we must continue to ensure we have sufficient prison places. Renting space in foreign prisons is an established practice in other nations, and proves that only the Conservatives are committed to taking the tough action to make our streets safer.”
Mr Chalk also announced plans to introduce Jade’s Law before Parliament by the end of the year. The measures are named after Jade Ward, who was stabbed and strangled by her partner Russell Marsh. Despite currently serving at least 25 years in prison for her murder, Marsh still retains parental rights and Jade’s parents have been campaigning for that to change. The new rules, set to be introduced as part of the Victims and Prisoners Bill, will create an automatic suspension of parental responsibility from a person who is convicted of the murder or voluntary manslaughter of a person with whom they share parental responsibility.
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