£55m payout to help overcrowding crisis in British jails
The payment will try and solve the overcrowding crisis in UK prisons
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Wednesday, 20, Feb 2008 01:07
The Treasury has been forced into paying out £55 million to help ease the current overcrowding crisis in Britain's jails.
Justice secretary Jack Straw announced to MPs that of the emergency payment, £35 million will be used to pay for keeping prisoners in police cells.
It was announced this week that prison numbers in England and Wales had reached a new record of 81,918.
Included within this, 408 were being held nationwide in cells in police stations.
In a statement from the Ministry of Justice, the funding breakdown showed that £15 million of the payment would go towards the cost of providing an extra 500 places for those committed to prison.
£5 million would be required for the End of Custody Licence relating to charges from the Department for Work and Pensions for subsidy payments to prisoners released early.
It was also announced that an extra £60 million had been allocated to assist in providing 500 additional prison places.
The British Medical Association (BMA) earlier criticised the government for placing prisoners in police cells claiming health and safety was being jeopardised.
The BMA claimed that the cells were not equipped to deal with drug and mental health issues.
Dr George Fernie of the BMA said: "Recent increases in the number of prisoners entering the flimsy and makeshift system of temporary prison accommodation have left doctors struggling to cope."
"Placing prisoners in cramped police and court cells without full health care will simply contribute to the appalling re-offending rates in the UK."