Prisoners will not be sent as far away as Australia under new government plans to rent prison cells overseas, it’s been confirmed.
Labour MP Tahir Ali posed the question to prisons minister Damian Hinds, saying it has been suggested the country is being considered as a destination for inmates under new plans to ease the UK’s booming jail population.
Mr. Hinds said that while he could not confirm which countries the government is currently in talks with, he said Australia was not being considered.
Speaking at the Justice Select Committee on Wednesday, the minister said: “I’m happy to confirm that, no, it’s not Australia. There is sense in saying that there are places in the world—in the near world—where there is unused [prison] capacity.
“That’s not very efficient for those countries and then there are other countries that need to use extra capacity. We’re not the only one, by the way.
“Previously, the Netherlands has provided prison places for a fee to Belgium, its neighbour but also to Norway. And that’s, I think, an arrangement that works and that worked well.”
Mr. Hinds, who was giving evidence to the committee on the escalating prison capacity crisis, said a number of issues had to be taken into account before sending inmates to jails abroad.
Visible Community Service
Mr. Hinds appeared before the committee minutes after announcing in Parliament that foreign prisoners will be deported earlier under new legislation.Mr. Hinds said the change to the early release scheme for FNOs—where criminals leave prison early in exchange for repatriation—will not only help free up cells for the most dangerous offenders, but increase public safety.
The plans are part of Justice Secretary Alex Chalk’s new “Texan-style” prison reforms, which will see rapists made to serve their full sentences and fewer “low-level offenders” jailed.
Mr. Chalk said offenders who may have been given a short stint in prison could instead be handed community services like cleaning up local neighbourhoods.
Questioned on whether the public would be happy to see offenders working in their neighbourhoods instead of being locked up, Mr. Hinds said he believed they would.
“It is right actually, that there is a consequence of people doing wrong and people yes, do want to see that being enacted,” he said.
“I think when we talk to our constituents, though, they also get the fact that if you can get someone off drugs, deal with a mental health issue, if there is one, deal with an alcohol issue, if there is one, get somebody to regular work or into the habit of a regular pattern in their life. “Actually, there’s a much better chance of them not reoffending.”
The minister said that the government wanted to make prisoner’s “unpaid work” more visible to the public.
“You want more people to know that these people are having their time taken off them to make these reparations to society.
“And where possible, doing it in a way that the typical member of the public sees that and goes, ‘right, I totally get that, that is a good thing happening in my community, that wouldn’t get done otherwise.’ So when that works well, I think it does attract public support.”
