The UK will look into following an example set by Norway to rent prison places in other countries, the UK justice minister announced.
Alex Chalk told the Conservative Party conference on Tuesday that the 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,” Mr. Chalk said.
The government plans to explore the option of moving prisoners to another country’s prison estate, provided the facilities, regime, and rehabilitation meet British standards.
According to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the government will work on the legislation to enable any future arrangements, as soon as parliamentary time allows.
This means that MoJ’s plans are set to be enshrined in law before the next general election, to be held no later than January 2025.
The decision to move prisoners abroad comes amid the government’s prison expansion programme, which includes expanding and refurbishing 16 prison sites in the UK. The aim is to create 20,000 new prison places by mid-2020s.
Reporting an increase of 57 percent since 2010 in average prison sentence, the ministry said changes needed to be made in order to ensure “the most serious offenders spend longer behind bars.”
The growing demand for prison sites prompted the plans to build six new prisons and “explore renting overseas capacity” in coordination with partner countries in Europe, said Mr. Chalk.
Prison minister Damian Hinds said that the UK needs to have sufficient prison places to ensure public protection.
Overcrowding
The latest Ministry of Justice figures showed a total prison population in England and Wales of 87,793. Meanwhile, the maximum capacity was at 88,561. The prison population has been estimated to grow in England and Wales to between 93,000 and 106,000 by 2027.“With prison population figures only expected to increase, I will be monitoring the impact of overcrowding very closely,” said Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor.
While the government says that locking up dangerous offenders for longer is the drive for its plans to outsource to foreign countries, this could also help tackle the capacity issues Whitehall is facing in the next decade.
Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood argued that the government was “incapable of building the prisons places” the UK needs to “keep our people safe.”
Reacting to Mr. Chalk’s speech, the Chief Executive of the Prison Reform Trust Pia Sinha called the government’s plan a “half-baked idea.” She warned that prison leaders will be in despair at such a “superficial response.”
“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,” Ms. Sinha said in a statement.
The practice of renting prison sites abroad was first employed by Norway in 2015, when it signed a €25 million deal with the Netherlands. Seeking to reduce the backlog of its prisoners, Norway transferred 242 prisoners to Dutch sites.
The agreement applied for three years and terminated in 2018.
