Make more use of open prisons, former minister says

The UK should "make much usage of unfastened prisons" to debar overcrowding and trim reoffending, the antheral starring the government's sentencing reappraisal has suggested.

David Gauke told the Times that "we person tally retired of space" successful prisons and determination is "an opportunity" for the strategy to alteration if inmates are fixed much state to permission situation to survey and enactment during the day.

The erstwhile Conservative justness caput has been called successful by the authorities to reappraisal sentencing and tackle overcrowding.

His comments travel visits to 3 prisons successful Spain, wherever reforms person seen 25% of inmates placed successful unfastened prisons.

He said the argumentation saved wealth and amended prepared inmates for merchandise which made them little apt to reoffend.

Gauke served arsenic justness caput betwixt January 2018 and July 2019 successful Theresa May's Cabinet.

Earlier this twelvemonth to helium was appointed to pb a Government sentencing review, which is expected to see scrapping abbreviated sentences and toughening up assemblage orders arsenic an alternate to jail.

The reappraisal was a Labour manifesto pledge and the enactment has besides appointed Lord Timpson, erstwhile caput of the key-cutting concatenation that hires ex-offenders and main of the Prison Reform Trust, arsenic its prisons minister.

"I deliberation determination is an expanding designation that we person gone down the way of expanding sentences to an grade that it's doing thing to trim transgression but it is causing important costs," Gauke told the Times.

"This is not astir being brushed connected crime, it is astir much efficaciously reducing crime."

The authorities has already released 5,500 prisoners aboriginal successful an exigency program to escaped up cells and halt the justness strategy collapsing, and has besides announced a sentencing reappraisal aimed astatine providing much non-custodial sentences.

The argumentation is owed to beryllium reviewed successful 18 months.

The Ministry of Justice has promised to find a full of 14,000 compartment spaces successful jails by 2031.

Some 6,400 of these volition beryllium astatine recently built prisons, with £2.3 cardinal towards the outgo implicit the adjacent 2 years.

But earlier successful December, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that conscionable gathering much prisons volition not lick the overcrowding crisis.

Asked whether the property would beryllium abbreviated of cells wrong 3 years, adjacent with 14,000 other places, Mahmood said: "We volition tally retired due to the fact that adjacent each of that caller supply, with the summation successful situation colonisation that we volition spot arsenic a effect of that caller supply, doesn't assistance you with the emergence successful demand, due to the fact that request is inactive rising faster than immoderate proviso could drawback up with."

Gauke has besides said that gathering much prisons is not the reply and a much "strategic" attack is needed to escaped up space.

The sentencing reappraisal is expected to marque its recommendations successful the spring.