PRISONERS TO BE PUT IN CARGO CONTAINERS

Overcrowding Crisis Prompts Government to Import Converted Shipping
Units to Use As Cells

Specially converted sea containers imported from China are to be
turned into temporary jails to ease the British prisons overcrowding
crisis, The Observer has learned.

The plan is to have the modules installed in five prisons by June at
a cost of UKP3.5m each. Prisons earmarked for the new units include
Stoke Heath Young Offenders Institution in Shropshire and Wayland
Prison in Norfolk.

The government has also placed an order for two large-scale units
comprising five containers bolted together and capable of holding 300
prisoners apiece. These larger modules will require planning
permission, which means they are unlikely to be introduced until the
end of the year. It is understood Rochester Prison in Kent has been
identified as one possible site for the new units.

Article continues Similar containers already house British troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan but the plan to use them in prisons has
astonished criminal justice experts, who warn it may have health and
safety implications. 'Using containers to house prisoners, even for
short periods of time, is extraordinary,' said Harry Fletcher of the
probation union Napo.

'There are clearly health and safety and environmental issues which
would have to be addressed. The units are likely to be cramped so
there will not be much room for activities such as education. No
decisions appear to have been made on staffing and it is unclear
where the money will be coming from.'

The containers will have 30 cells, each capable of holding two
prisoners. The cells are formed by slotting specially made wooden
walls into the metal sides of the containers. Each cell will have a
shower, a toilet and an anti-suicide porthole. As the containers -
known as 'temporary custodial modules' - are under 1,000 square
metres in size they will not require planning permission.

The Home Office is desperate to install the containers by June, when
the prison population is expected to reach crisis point. The
situation has become so grim that Home Office officials have been
forced to consider a plan for the early release of 2,500 prisoners in
an attempt to ease overcrowding in Britain's jails.

Whitehall sources last night confirmed the existence of the scheme,
but said there were no present plans to activate it. They said it
would be used only as a last resort and was only one of many options
being considered.

The Home Secretary, John Reid, has consistently opposed any such
moves and has ruled them out on his watch, but The Observer
understands that senior figures in the Home Office now believe they
may have no choice but to put the plan into effect later in the year,
if the prison population continues to rise.

Last Thursday it reached more than 80,000, around 800 below usable
operational capacity. Internal Home Office estimates suggest that, if
present trends continue, it will touch 83,000 by June, triggering the
need for drastic action unless more places are found.

Under the new proposals, about 2,500 prisoners would be freed a
fortnight early under what is known as a release on temporary
licence. They can be recalled for breaching the terms of their
release. This proposal differs from the standard early release scheme
that carries no sanctions and which Reid rejected last year for fear
that he would be seen as 'too soft'.

Home Office sources stressed that only non-violent prisoners would be
released under the plan and that those considered for it would be
subject to strict eligibility criteria and supervision.

Critics of the Home Office are likely to accuse ministers of
political meddling to solve a crisis of their own making if they
choose to activate the plan.

'The release of these prisoners early would be a direct consequence
of Labour's failure to address the chronic lack of capacity in our
prisons, despite warnings from ourselves and their own advisers going
back to 2001,' said David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary.

In a separate move, Home Office minister Baroness Scotland, Lord
Chief Justice Lord Phillips and the head of the National Offender
Management Service, Helen Edwards, will tomorrow summon magistrates
to a conference to discuss alternatives to jail. But any suggestion
that magistrates should imprison fewer offenders is likely to be
greeted by claims of interference and prompt an ugly row between
politicians and the judiciary.

The mounting crisis comes as independent research to be published by
the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies warns that the government's
sentencing regime could be leading to more custodial sentences.

'Home Office officials hoped a reconfigured community sentence and
the new suspended sentence order would address the ratcheting-up in
sentencing tariffs which has resulted in... immediate custody
displacing community penalties,' said Enver Solomon, the centre's
deputy director. 'Our analysis shows this is not happening and the
government is having to resort to desperate measures.'