Government pledges to build 14,000 new prison places to tackle overcrowding crisis

The Government has pledged to build 14,000 new prison places by 2031 as part of a £2.3 billion plan to tackle the overcrowding crisis, the Justice Secretary has revealed.

Shabana Mahmood will today publish a 10-year prison capacity strategy, which she says will ensure there is always space to lock up criminals.

This includes opening four new prisons over the next seven years, which will create 6,400 new places.

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The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has just given the green light for a new 1,700-place prison next to HMP Garth in Lancashire, after years stuck in the planning system.

The further 7,600 prison places will be created by building new blocks in current prisons, refurbishing existing cells and creating rapid deployment cells.

Ms Mahmood, the Lord Chancellor, said: “The last Government pretended they could send people away for longer and longer without building the prisons they promised.

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This strategy reveals that their prison building plans were years delayed and nearly £5bn over budget.

“They left our prisons in crisis, on the edge of collapse.

“Part of our plan for change, this capacity strategy, alongside an independent review of sentencing policy, will keep our streets safe and ensure no government runs out of prison places again.”

Ms Mahmood said that the sentencing review, led by former Tory Justice Secretary David Gauke, would serve as a separate way of freeing up places.

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She added: “Even with the new supply that we are building, we are still going to run out of prison places because the demand into the system is much higher than the building that is being planned.

"We simply cannot build our way out of this problem, so in order to make sure there’s always a prison place for the people that need to be locked up … we do have to have an independent review of sentencing.”

It comes after the Government was forced to release thousands of prisoners early to cope with a penitentiary system that was effectively full.

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Labour has blamed the Conservatives for the crisis, claiming that when the party came to power in July the prison estate was 99 per cent full.

A party spokesperson said: “The Tories’ gross negligence of our prisons is unforgivable. Without action from this Labour government, criminals could do whatever they want, without consequence.”

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