Super-prisons could replace existing jails
Britain’s biggest prisons could become boutique hotels and luxury apartments under new plans to reform prisons.
Jails such as Dartmoor, Wormwood Scrubs and Pentonville could be replaced by super prisons holding up to 3,000 inmates, following plans by an influential think-tank.
Around 30 of Britain’s most run-down prisons could be closed, making way for 12 ‘Justice villages’ or huge prison complexes, according to Policy Exchange.
The proposal, which could save the government £10 billion over 25 years, could see the inner city prisons becoming boutique hotels, as happened to Oxford prison 17 years ago.
Kevin Lockyer, a former governor of Bristol prison, and the report's author, said: "We need to build larger, newer facilities that use the most up-to-date technology to monitor inmates. New hub prisons will not only reduce reoffending and improve safety, they will also deliver vast financial savings."
The super-prisons would contain semi-independent units, including a remand centre, closed prison and an open jail.
Prisoners would be tagged so that their movements could be tracked.
The report suggests closing Brixton, Feltham, Holloway, Pentonville, Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs Jails – all in London.
They would be replaced with three super-prisons on brownfield sites within the M25, financed through public borrowing.
Seven prisons have already closed this year, including Gloucester and Canterbury.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "With crime falling and community sentences and treatment to tackle addictions working to reduce reoffending, it would be a gigantic mistake to pour taxpayers' money down a super-sized, big brother prison-building drain.
“There is scope to close some outdated prisons and reinvest the money saved into effective community solutions to crime."
