Attorney General James Timpson told the Guardian that the prison was preparing to deal with a sudden influx of criminals.
Officials revealed hundreds of additional temporary and newly refurbished cells will be used by the end of the year, and as the warden said, “no more urgent measures” will be taken, such as early release plans.
“If we have riots, civil disobedience, we need to prepare for the capacity we need to [we saw] In summer. We are very clear that there are no more urgent measures to be done. We just need to make sure to use all the operating levers. ” he said.
Prisons across England and Wales reached full capacity of 100 spaces in August last year, after more than 1,280 arrests were followed by a riot in the midst of the murders of three Southport girls.
The “operation leverage” that ministers pulled this year sought to avoid duplicate scenarios, including hundreds of “rapid deployment units,” temporary safe rooms that will be built on the basis of existing prisons. Sources said another 350 cells in disrepair are being fixed for use.
The minister was forced to take urgent measures to detain those arrested, charged and convicted last summer. It is understood that the latest preparations from the Department of Justice are not the result of any specific intelligence warning riots.
The riots occurred between July 30 and August 7 as far-right activists circulated the Southport attacks by Muslims and asylum seekers.
When the defendants were detained by police, the ministers were forced to activate Operation Early Dawn and were not sued to court until the available prison places were first confirmed.
Emergency measures could be held in Stockden Prison in Rutland and the newly repurposed HMP Cookham Wood (formerly in the former young criminal agency in Borstal, Kent) and over 500 new prisons were taken.
Before the riot, the government had taken urgent measures to help alleviate short-term capacity pressures in prisons. More than 3,000 prisoners have been given licenses to 40%, rather than the usual 50%.
A Whitehall source said that due to overcrowding of labor inheritance crisis, cells installed this year will be needed this year.
Lord Timpson, a private sector surprise, recruited Keir Starmer’s ministerial team, who spoke with his guardians during the expansion of the HMP Highpoint 700 shares near Haverhill, Suffolk, which would make it the largest prison in the UK.
The new “housing neighborhoods” built over the next two years will include workshops and educational facilities to teach inmates skills to help them ensure jobs released.
As CEO of Timpsons, the shoe repair chain of the same name, Timpson trains and employs hundreds of prisoners, which he believes is crucial to reducing the demand for more prisons.
“One of the ways we’re going to fight this growing prison demand is when people leave, they don’t come back. When 80% of crimes are reoffended, something doesn’t work. We have to get people ready to leave,” Tipsen said.
Many of Highpoint’s 1,300 prisoners — men who commit nonviolent crimes such as drug-related crimes, burglaries and theft — should be retrained and spend more time serving the community orders, Timpson said.
Inmates in prison can apply for employment and retraining, including railway maintenance, electronic recycling and clothing recycling programs. Some courses can provide guaranteed work once released.
They told The Guardian that despite being imprisoned in one of the best prisons with resources in the UK, Highpoint prisoners face a waiting list of more than 100 courses.
“There are courses here, there are jobs here, but you can’t take a vocational course. So unless you’re lucky or know the right person, you won’t be trained before you go out,” said a senior inmate. A report by Prison Watchdog last year found that few senior inmates attend purposeful activities or receive adequate education or training.
Other prisoners say there is little meaning behind sentences that sentences to long-term sentences unless they learn new skills.
“I’ve changed since here – I don’t want to go back to prison – but I can’t see sitting in my cell and doing nothing,” said Ross Payton, 33, of Harlow, Essex, who was sentenced to 24 years in prison for supplying drugs and guns.
Timpson acknowledged that there are too few career opportunities in prisons, which has exacerbated the increase in prison populations.
“The prison population has increased – now, many of the cells here will be double – but the number of courses and seminars has not doubled,” he said.
Timpson said the expansion of courses and workshop options would require more public funding — but the Justice Department’s budget would easily be cut in a spring statement on March 26, as the department “has no protection.”
“We are an unprotected department and like all other unprotected departments, we need to submit the case to the Prime Minister for expenditure review. I come from a business background and have a lot of interest in money and finances, but this is in my hands,” he said.
Attorney General Shabana Mahmood revealed last month that prisoners can be freed by “good conduct credit” after reviewing similar plans in Texas.
