An additional 4,000 prison places will be created across 16 prisons through the building of new wings and refurbishing jails.
The Ministry of Justice previously announced in October 2020 that four prisons would be expanded – HMPs Guys Marsh (Dorset), Rye Hill (Warwickshire) and Stocken (Rutland).
Today’s announcement builds on this, with a total of 16 sites being expanded and refurbished as part of the drive to create 20,000 additional prison places by mid-2020s.
Subject to planning permission, eight prisons will get new houseblocks and seven others will be refurbished as part of a wider £150m investment in refurbishment.
The ministry already has planning for five of the prisons, HMPs Stocken, Guys Marsh, High Down, Birmingham and Liverpool.
Justice secretary Dominic Raab said: “Our unprecedented prison-building programme is the largest in more than a century and will deliver an additional 20,000 prison places by the mid-2020s. We are improving our existing prison estate, putting more offenders behind bars, training them for release and protecting the public.”
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