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December 24, 2007
UK: Private-sector role in super-prisons
"However Lord Carter, the Labour peer and prisons expert, is thought to have been persuaded by private- sector studies suggesting that the use of PFI to build three "super prisons" provides an advantage over the alternative of a network of smaller prisons, of economies of scale as well as a reduction in carbon footprints because of fewer transfers between jails."
Private-sector role in super-prisons
By Jimmy Burns
December 24 2007
Financial Times
Contracts for the UK's first "super-prison" are set to be awarded next year, in a move expected to underline Gordon Brown's commitment to the private finance initiative.
Fears for the future of PFI have been expressed by the Confederation of British Industry in recent months because of project cancellations or postponements that have occurred, including a significant shrinking in the market for PFI hospitals.
But with ministers promising an expanding role for the private sector in the new prisons programme, industry sources now say they are confident of significant PFI contracts being put out for tender in the sector during 2008.
While the contracts will include the provision of 600 new prison places at Belmarsh in south-east London and a further 600 at Maghull in Liverpool, the most significant building project will involve one of the so-called "Titan" prisons with a capacity for 2,500 inmates.
The first "super-prison" is expected to open by 2012, with two moredue to open two years later, as part of government plans to meet a forecast rise in the prison population from 81,000 at rpesent to 96,000 in 2014.
Jack Straw, justice secretary, this month said he had secured £1.2bn in extra funding to help boost the continuing prison building programme, which includes extensions of existing sites, conversions of abandoned army camps, and a new prison ship.
Prison reformers, the probation union Napo, and Ann Owers, chief inspector of prisons, have warned the government against diverting funding away from other necessary reforms in the criminal justice system such as improvements to community sentencing and mental health and drug rehabilitation support programmes.
However Lord Carter, the Labour peer and prisons expert, is thought to have been persuaded by private- sector studies suggesting that the use of PFI to build three "super prisons" provides an advantage over the alternative of a network of smaller prisons, of economies of scale as well as a reduction in carbon footprints because of fewer transfers between jails.
The pressure on the current prison system is underlined today by official figures showing that 85 of the 141 prisons in England and Wales are classified as overcrowded.
According to the figures compiled by the Prison Reform Trust charity, more than 150,000 children have a parent in prison.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/01045e3a-b1c3-11dc-9777-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Posted by lois at December 24, 2007 10:13 AM