New jails 'not overcrowding answer'

The Tackling Prison Overcrowding report, being launched at the House of Lords, is critical of the policy of building 11,000 new prison places over the next five years and concludes that current penal policies will be unsustainable should crime rise in the future.

The study is based on a series of essays whose authors include former government officials and advisors.

They question the findings of the prisons review undertaken last year by Lord Carter of Coles, drawing attention to "political dimensions in penal policy and the pressures on politicians to present tough solutions to crime problems," a spokesperson said.

Joint editor of the report, Professor Mike Hough, director of the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College London, said: "Neither the case for expanding the prison population nor for the proposed Titan prisons have properly been made.

"While there is some promise in the proposed sentencing commission, these essays raise a large question mark over the general direction of current policies."

A second joint editor, Enver Solomon, added: "The evidence from the experts clearly demonstrates that building new super-sized jails is not the solution to the prison overcrowding crisis.

"Politicians from all parties need to listen carefully to what they have to say and rethink their approach."

The solutions to overcrowding suggested by the report include a Royal Commission on sentencing, the development of better ways of measuring the impact of imprisonment on public safety, and the consideration of how other countries limit prison growth.

The Titan prisons will be able to house up to 2,500 inmates, and when the plan was unveiled last December the likely locations were given as London, the West Midlands and the North West.