3 prisons to close this summer the AA grumpy column

[the grumps]

hello and welcome back to grumpy towers do come in i,ll get the butler to take your coat.

now you sit yourself down by the fire in the parlour and i,ll pour you a drink and we can talk about the latest lunacy dreamed up by the tory administration.

scotch ice and soda ? ( one for me too grumps ED)



The Ministry of Justice has announced the closure of three prisons with the loss of 800 places by July.

More offenders are to be fined or given community sentences

Ashwell prison in Rutland and Lancaster Castle in Lancashire will close, while Morton Hall women's jail in Lincolnshire will become an Immigration Removal Centre.

The inmates will be moved elsewhere while staff will be transferred to nearby prisons or invited to apply for voluntary redundancy.

The latest MoJ figures show there are currently 82,991 prisoners, about 5,000 less than the usable operational capacity of 87,936.

In December, Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke set out plans to reduce the prison population in England and Wales by about 3,000 over four years.

Today, he said: "The decision to close any prison is a difficult one but one that we have had to make.

"Closing outdated and expensive prisons is an important step in our strategy to provide a secure and modern, fit for purpose prison estate, while improving efficiency and value for the taxpayer."

Three Prisons To Close By The Summer With The Loss Of 800 Places Say Reports | Politics | Sky News



AAG

after the latest cutback of police numbers the closure of 3 prisons can only be sheer folly.

the fact that more offenders are to be fined or given community sentences means when a thief goes to court he knows he,s going to get a slap on the wrist sentence so there,s no deterrent there anymore in preventing crime.

i admit that we do need immigration removal centres but the prison system should not cut to provide immigration removal centres there are plenty of former army and RAF barracks that could be turned into removal centres.

and instead of the process taking years while these unwanted,s languish inside at the tax payers expense fast track a batch of them.

i.e fastrack the equivilant of a plane load of pakistanis or iraqi,s etc and ship them out in batches.

if a plane will hold 250 that is the number that should be fastracked and stop listening to the bleatings of the human rights brigade.

prisons like hospitals are one area that must not be cut they provide a vital service by removing criminals from the streets thus making the streets a slightly safer place.

we cannot cram the excess of prisoners into overcrowded victorian jails without risking riots or disturbance.

the state of play at the moment is

criminals 1

justice 0

with the criminals walking of of courts sniggering at justice and returning to thieving or drug dealing to pay their fine.