Labour matches Tory pledge to spend £4bn on new prisons

Labour has matched the Tory pledge to spend £4 billion on building new jails to tackle the prison overcrowding crisis.

Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, made the commitment as she insisted that decisions about where offenders were sent should not be made on the basis of “whether or not there is enough space”.

The prison population is projected to rise from the current 89,000 to around 106,000 within the next three years because of longer jail sentences and an expected increase in prosecutions from the 20,000 uplift in police officer numbers.

However, watchdogs have warned that even with the current prison building programme, the system could still run short of spaces as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) struggles to meet current demand. Earlier this month, the number of spare places dropped below 250 in men’s jails.

Two new super prisons, each housing 1,700 offenders, have already been built with a third of similar size due to open next spring. Two more, to house a further 3,400, have been granted planning permission and will open by the mid-2020s followed by a fifth which has been delayed by a planning inquiry.

With around £1.6 billion of the £4 billion so far spent, the MoJ expects to have built an extra 10,000 places by the end of next year, which is just half the 20,000 expansion pledged in 2021.

Criminal justice system in ‘total mess’

Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, Ms Thornberry claimed the criminal justice system was “in a total mess everywhere”.

“We should not be making decisions about whether someone goes to prison on the basis of whether or not there is enough space,” she said.

“We should be looking at the nature of the offence around whether the victims’ needs to be protected, whether that’s the appropriate way of punishing someone and making decisions entirely on that basis.”

Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, has introduced a series of intermediate measures to tackle the overcrowding crisis including the early release of prisoners up to 60 days before their scheduled date to be freed.

These include violent prisoners serving sentences of under four years, as well as burglars, thieves, shoplifters and fraudsters. Only terrorist, sexual and serious violent offenders and Category A prisoners are excluded.

The move to increase the early release time from 18 to 60 days was introduced after warnings that the prisons could run out of space this spring if further action was not taken.

New Bill seen as ‘soft justice’

Mr Chalk has also introduced radical proposals in a Bill to enable courts to suspend the jail sentences of offenders facing up to one year in prison, rather than put them behind bars.

However, it has been held up by Rishi Sunak amid fears that it will be seen as “soft justice” in the run up to the next election and backbench rebellion by more than 40 Tory MPs, including Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, who believe the Government should be taking a tougher approach on prolific offenders.

It is understood Labour would not oppose the legislation. Ms Thornberry hinted at her support for alternative community punishments to jail. She said Labour was committed to get “the probation service off its knees” after years of turmoil and underfunding.

This would mean “courts can make a proper decision as to whether we have people sent to prison or punished in the community so that they can be worked on to change their ways”, she said.