Merseyside gets new prison
John Reid has come under pressure over the current prison population
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Friday, 19, Jan 2007 11:06
A new 350-place prison will be opened in Merseyside this spring, the Home Office has announced.
A lease has been signed with the Mersey Care NHS Trust to open HMP Kennet within the next few months.
The prison will hold adult male inmates and will be designated a category C establishment, housing prisoners considered unable to be trusted in open conditions but who are unlikely to try to escape.
Home secretary John Reid has been under pressure to increase the prison capacity in the UK after the number of prisoners increased to more than 79,000, putting the current prisons under strain.
He has promised to increase prison capacity in England and Wales to more than 81,000 this year, with an extra 8,000 prison places to be created by 2012.
"I am committed to protecting the public and ensuring that there are prison places for those who need to be in prison," he said today.
Mr Reid added: "The new 350-bed prison will also create jobs and business opportunities for the local community."
The prison is said to be focused on providing skills and qualifications for offenders with the aim of ensuring they can be safely released into the public after their sentences.
It will be located on land not currently required by the Mersey Care Trust and buildings on the site and a secure perimeter are to be converted.
The Home Office says that the prison is planned to be open for at least five years, a period of time which may be extended.
But the Conservatives are unlikely to be impressed by today's announcement having been heaping the pressure on the government to resolve the prison population problem for some time.
"Due to the government's failure to build enough prison spaces, our prisons are already full and prisoners are being held in police cells across the country," Tory shadow home secretary David Davis said in November last year.