Straw set to dump Titan prisons
By politics.co.uk staff
Titan prisons look set to become the first government project to fall victim to the Budget.
Both the Independent and the BBC are reporting that justice secretary Jack Straw will scrap the scheme.
But an official Ministry of Justice statement read: “The justice secretary will make a statement on this issue shortly and we cannot comment further on speculation.”
That statement is in marked contrast to previous comments from the Ministry, however, which were always extremely positive about the prisons.
There will be few mourners for the scheme, which faced near-universal condemnation at consultation.
Both opposition parties oppose it, as do a wide-range of penal reform groups.
Liberal Democrat justice spokesman David Howarth said: “It is good news that the government has finally realised that Titan jails were a colossal waste of money and have abandoned their ridiculous plans.”
Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve said: “Warehousing offenders in hulks twice the size of Wembley stadium was never going to address increased levels of re-offending and so we welcome plans to scrap Titan prisons.
“Labour’s criminal justice policy is now in total disarray.”
Leaks to the media indicate that the Ministry is keen to frame the decision as one based on a rethink, where consultation objections were listened to and implemented, rather than anything to do with the Budget.
Penal reform groups despised the scheme because it flew in the face of documented rehabilitation evidence, which firmly points to improved rehabilitation rates in small, local prisons where inmates have frequent familial visits.
Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform said: “Titan jails were a disastrous idea and are now a titanic policy failure.
“The answer to rising prison populations is not to build more failing jails, which churn out unreformed prisoners into local communities, more damaged and dangerous from having spent time in our colleges of crime.”
The government was also wary of community responses to the prisons, which would have held around 2,500 inmates.
The total number of prison places is still set to increase to 96,000 by 2014.
Mr Straw will make a statement to the Commons next week.
