UK Abandons “Titan” Prisons
UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw has ditched plans for three giant ‘Titan’ prisons costing £1.2 billion as the Government spending squeeze begins to bite.
Advanced proposals to build three, four-storey, 2,500 place jails will be dropped next week in a major U-turn. Mr Straw will tell Parliament he has opted instead to build five smaller prisons, each holding 1,500 inmates – as many as the largest existing prisons in England and Wales.
Ministry of Justice sources said the decision was made in response to local opposition and criticism from penal reform groups and were not linked to funding. But the Tories said Mr Straw was responding to a £400 million “black hole” in prison finances.
A consultation paper on prison expansion published in June last year said each Titan would be housed on a giant 50-acre site and hold a cluster of smaller units holding around 500 inmates. Planned locations were near the country’s major population centres in London, the West Midlands and the North West. New prison places are needed to fill a predicted 13,600 shortfall by 2014. The prison population crisis has meant that since June 2007, 52,117 criminals have been let out up to 18 days early.
Economic Issues, England & Wales, Europe, INTERNATIONAL, Prison and Jail Construction, United Kingdom
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