MPs resist Titan prison scheme
MPs have responded angrily to government attempt to force through their plans for Titan prisons.
“We were promised a ‘national conversation’ – what we seem to have instead is a fait accompli,” said Sir Alan Beith, chair of justice select committee.
The MPs were reacting to a government reply to a report condemning the plans for Titan prisons as expensive and ineffective.
“A decade of criminal mismanagement of the justice system, sadly, shows no sign of abating,” said Lib Dem David Howarth.
“It is high time that the Government looked again at its ineffective policies on short-term custodial sentences, indeterminate sentences and Titan prisons.”
Though MPs acknowledged the government’s recognition of some proposals, many expressed resentment at its indifference to the committee’s main recommendation: to find a consistent sentencing policy and allocate it sufficient funding so Titans become unnecessary.
“We have binged on prisons as we have binged on credit, while ignoring the social problems that mass imprisonment simply exacerbates,” said director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Frances Crook.
“In the new financial climate the cost of policy-making on the hoof in reaction to newspaper headlines – £2 billion and counting for the universally derided Titan prisons, for example – is going to be an increasingly relevant issue.”
The recommendation to scrap ‘titan’ prison plans came as a result of research revealing deep flaws in the government’s current approach to sentencing.
Thought to be a cost-effective resolution to prison overcrowding, Titan prisons would house around 2,500 prisoners, allowing for the expansion of the prison capacity in England and Wales.
There are currently three ‘titan’ prisons in the works, the first of which is set for completion in 2012.
Prison reform activists say the prisons contradict almost all the research into prisoner rehabilitation.
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