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BRITAIN is on course for a massive expansion in prison capacity, an assessment from the Centre for Crime & Justice Studies (CCJS) revealed today.
In England and Wales, nearly 22,000 extra prison places are being planned in the coming years, while in Scotland an extra 3,600 prison places are under development.
The analysis comes as the government in London reaffirms its plans to spend £2.5 billion building four new prisons in England.
Last year, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said that the new prisons model being developed at one site, in Wellingborough, was intended to take the prisons estate “into the 22nd century.”
But CCJS director Richard Garside said: “While the governments in London and Edinburgh pay lip-service to the notion that a smaller prison population is desirable, all their actions suggest a commitment to further growth and a long-term commitment to unnecessary incarceration.
“Rather than attempting to build their way out of the current prisons crisis, they would do better to rethink some of their basic assumptions, developing a long-term strategy to prevent unnecessary criminalisation and tackle unnecessary imprisonment.”
