Prison officer watching from landing (Howard League)
George Osborne has decided to provide the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) with the capital to build nine new prisons. As the Chancellor painted it in his Autumn Statement, this would mean “better education facilities and other rehabilitative services, while selling ageing, inefficient prisons on prime real estate to free up land for new homes”.
But this decision warrants closer inspection. When the move was trailed three weeks ago, it became clear that only five of the nine new prisons would be built in this Parliament. One should take any announcement that any government makes about a parliamentary term beyond this one with a heavy pinch of salt. All the initial talk was also about closing dilapidated Victorian prisons, with Pentonville the particular name in the frame. Yet it was another north London prison, the women’s jail Holloway, which eventually made its way into the statement.
