Government deal with overcrowding in prisons. By closing prisons.

[Derek]

You know how the prisons are ridiculously full? Obviously the fat, lazy cops just preying on motorists while waiting for their gold plated pensions are doing something right.

Well to deal with this the government have decided to build a spanking new super prison holding 2,000 inmates. To help pay for this they are closing six older prisons that hold 2,600 inmates.

Six prisons in England are to be closed and three more will be partially shut, the Ministry of Justice has announced.

It will result in the loss of 2,600 places in what the statement called "old and uneconomic" prisons and is expected to save £63m per year from the cost of running prisons.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says it also plans to build a new super prison with 2,000 places.

The six prisons that are to close are Bullwood Hall in Essex, Canterbury, Gloucester, Kingston in Portsmouth, Shepton Mallet in Somerset and Shrewsbury.

Prisons in Chelmsford, Hull and Isle of Wight are to be partially closed.

Can anyone else see a potential issue here? Like losing 600 spaces?

Of course the cynic in me is sure that the new 'super' prison wont be run by the private sector...

Maybe the private sector can help pay for their prisons by offering inmates 'upgrade' packages that promise bigger cells, nicer beds, full english breakfast and a dedicated guard! Thus saving even more than £63 million a year.

[BenMcr]

I know this may not be fashionable thinking, but I thought part of the reason we have many smaller prisons was in part to keep prisoners connected with family and friends that could potentially help them once they were released

Shipping people off to a 'super prison' that could be halfway across the country seems like it could cause issues as if someone hasn't got any support when they get out, what is to stop them falling back into whatever caused them to go to prison in the first place?

And yes I'm aware that this does happen now, but it must happen less than when they changes occur.

[Osem]

It's totally consistent isn't it? HMG have long been dealing with the effects of a growing and ageing population by encouraging an influx of immigrants many of whom will stay here, have children and then grow old themselves...

[Taf]

Originally Posted by Osem

It's totally consistent isn't it? HMG have long been dealing with the effects of a growing and ageing population by encouraging an influx of immigrants many of whom will stay here, have children and then grow old themselves...

And spend time in our overcrowded prisons?

Originally Posted by Damien

Maybe the private sector can help pay for their prisons by offering inmates 'upgrade' packages that promise bigger cells, nicer beds, full english breakfast and a dedicated guard! Thus saving even more than £63 million a year.

I would pay the upgrade if it mean't no one took my cherry lmao

---------- Post added at 13:17 ---------- Previous post was at 13:16 ----------

Originally Posted by BenMcr

I know this may not be fashionable thinking, but I thought part of the reason we have many smaller prisons was in part to keep prisoners connected with family and friends that could potentially help them once they were released

Shipping people off to a 'super prison' that could be halfway across the country seems like it could cause issues as if someone hasn't got any support when they get out, what is to stop them falling back into whatever caused them to go to prison in the first place?

And yes I'm aware that this does happen now, but it must happen less than when they changes occur.

they would get a travel warrant home though they would not be expected to stay there

Originally Posted by Osem

It's totally consistent isn't it? HMG have long been dealing with the effects of a growing and ageing population by encouraging an influx of immigrants many of whom will stay here, have children and then grow old themselves...

Well if they pay taxes than this is fine. A lot of people are reaching pension age and there isn't the population to sustain it. As the baby boomer generation reaches retirement age we need more people to pay into the system so that the rest of us can afford their pensions, to redress the population balance.

For all the talk about foreign aid or 'skivers' it's the care and pensions for the elderly that really costs. Got to pay for it somehow...

Originally Posted by BenMcr

I know this may not be fashionable thinking, but I thought part of the reason we have many smaller prisons was in part to keep prisoners connected with family and friends that could potentially help them once they were released

Shipping people off to a 'super prison' that could be halfway across the country seems like it could cause issues as if someone hasn't got any support when they get out, what is to stop them falling back into whatever caused them to go to prison in the first place?

And yes I'm aware that this does happen now, but it must happen less than when they changes occur.

A lifestyle choice ? it is their own choice that they are in prison in the first place all they have to do is make the decision not to back into jail again .

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Damien

Well if they pay taxes than this is fine. A lot of people are reaching pension age and there isn't the population to sustain it. As the baby boomer generation reaches retirement age we need more people to pay into the system so that the rest of us can afford their pensions, to redress the population balance.

For all the talk about foreign aid or 'skivers' it's the care and pensions for the elderly that really costs. Got to pay for it somehow...

If x amount of immigrants arrive and pay taxes, it doesn't end up with x more taxpayers. That taxable income would not be magically generated from thin air, it is taken from elsewhere. Just as the amount of housing, energy generation, health care, water supply, roads etc doesn't suddenly magically increase.

How did this become a discussion on immigration?Let's please deal with the topic at hand and specified in the title.

[Gary L]

I bet they leave the shutdown prisons standing long enough to start chucking disabled and poor people into. when they start being a nuisance.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Damien

Well if they pay taxes than this is fine. A lot of people are reaching pension age and there isn't the population to sustain it. As the baby boomer generation reaches retirement age we need more people to pay into the system so that the rest of us can afford their pensions, to redress the population balance.

For all the talk about foreign aid or 'skivers' it's the care and pensions for the elderly that really costs. Got to pay for it somehow...

No it isn't. Adding to the population doesn't solve the problem it just makes the problem bigger and becomes a merry-go-round. If migration is going to be the solution to the care/pensions crisis it has to be temporary migration not permanent. We digress anyway...

Surely the best way of controlling our prison population is to persuade people not to go down that route in the first place and even control our population better. Building more and more prisons to hold more and more people isn't sustainable. We may not like the idea of having controls on the number of children we can have but frankly I see it becoming inevitable.

Probably worth pointing out that along with the new super prison there are 4 new mini prisons being built onto existing prisons

as well as the super-prison, there are plans for four new mini-prisons known as houseblocks which could hold up to 1,260 prisoners. These are due to be built at existing prisons in Parc in South Wales, Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, the Mount in Hertfordshire, and Thameside in London.

http://news.sky.com/story/1036053/si...project-begins

[v0id]

They should find a tropical island to send all the criminals to

[Derek]

Originally Posted by v0id

They should find a tropical island to send all the criminals to

How about here?

Maybe not tropical but we could give them a coat to share.