Axe £4bn 'mega-jails' and invest in crime prevention - ex-prisons chief

Ministers should scrap Conservative plans to build mega-jails and instead pour £4bn into crime prevention and rehabilitation, a former chief inspector of prisons has said.

- Rowena Mason

Nick Hardwick, who is also a former head of the Parole Board, said a huge expansion of prisons "won't solve the problem", especially when average jail sentences were rising.

Keir Starmer inherited a crisis in the prisons system when he took office and blamed the previous government for letting prisons operate at 99% capacity for 18 months with anet number of 100 prisoners added every week. He announced an expansion of the Tory scheme of releasing tens of thousands of inmates early to try to prevent jails becoming full.

On top of the early release scheme, Labour has suggested it will keep the Conservatives' plan to expand the system by at least 14,000 places in England and Wales, up from about 89,000 now, including six new prisons, at a cost of £4bn. Planned "super-prisons" in Lancashire, Leicestershire and Buckinghamshire have been hit by delays. Pressure has grown after the riots in England led to more than 1,000 arrests.