- Closing more than 30 run down and dilapidated prisons and constructing 10-12 state of the art Hub Prisons.
- Locating the prisons on brownfield sites near to main transport routes and to hold more prisoners as close to home as possible.
- Constructing the prisons using cutting-edge architecture, with technologies such as biometric security systems. Halfway houses would be located inside the prison estate and the sites would include courts to cut the cost of transferring prisoners for trial.
- Allowing private providers to compete on a level playing field with the public sector to manage and run the new establishments.
Kevin Lockyer, the report’s author, “We are busting the myth that ‘small is beautiful’ when it comes to prisons. In fact, newer prisons outperform older ones, regardless of their size.
“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 and better value for money for the taxpayer.
“I was Governor at two Victorian prisons and have always believed that it is unacceptable that some prisoners serve their sentence hundreds of miles from their homes in facilities which would be better suited to be museums. New Hub Prisons will allow us to close more than thirty of our darkest, dampest and most expensive prisons – and replace them with modern facilities properly geared towards reducing reoffending .”
ENDS
Notes to editors
The report proposes closing the following prisons in two key areas of the country, as examples of the kind of closures and construction that should be followed in all regions of England and Wales:
London
The report recommends the closure of HMP Brixton, HMP Feltham, HMP Holloway, HMP Pentonville, HMP Wandsworth, and HMP Wormwood Scrubs. These would be replaced by three 2,500 place prisons within the M25 to provide; 500 places for women to replace Holloway; 1,000 places for young adults to replace the young offender capacity at Feltham; and 600 places to replace the adult male capacity lost by the proposed closures.
South West
The report recommends: the closure of Dorchester prison and the transfer of its remand function to Winchester; the closure of Bristol prison and the construction of a new 3,000 place prison south of the city close to the M5 corridor; the retention of Exeter prison in order to serve Devon and Cornwall courts; and the closure of Dartmoor, Erlestoke, Guys Marsh, Portland and The Verne.