A further 160 new modular prison cells designed to quickly boost
jail capacity and keep the public safe are set to open at HMP
Hollesley Bay in Suffolk next week.
It is the latest batch of 1,000 Rapid Deployment Cells being
rolled out at 18 prisons to meet rising demand for places driven
by the lasting impact of the pandemic and exacerbated by last
year’s barristers’ strike.
Since September 2023, the government has boosted prison capacity
by an additional 1,900 places on top of planned building works,
like new prison HMP Five Wells.
This has been achieved through Rapid Deployment Cells as well as
measures including greater use of double occupancy of cells where
it is safe to do so and delaying non-urgent maintenance work.
These shorter-term measures sit alongside the government’s major
20,000 prison place building programme – the largest since the
Victorian era – which gathers pace.
Prisons Minister, , said:
The government will stop at nothing to ensure we have enough
prison cells to take dangerous criminals off the streets.
These measures to create a further 1,900 places are providing
extra capacity to deal with immediate pressures stemming from the
pandemic and its impact on the justice system.
The almost £4 billion investment to deliver additional prison
places will see 6 state-of-the art new jails constructed, with
the 1,700 capacity HMP Five Wells already open.
The second of these new prisons, the 1,715-capacity HMP Fosse Way
near Leicester, will have its official opening next week and
construction is well underway at HMP Millsike in East Yorkshire
which will hold nearly 1,500 prisoners when full.
Rapid Deployment Cells have a lifespan of around 15 years and are
providing extra capacity to meet some of the rising demand seen
following the pandemic and criminal barristers’ strike last year,
while longer-term expansion is underway. The remand
population is around 5,000 higher than before the pandemic and
the criminal barristers’ strike which followed.
By creating extra space, the new rapid cells also aid the smooth
running of prisons by giving governors more choice in how they
manage prisoners day-to-day. Along with other measures we have
taken, it has reduced the need to use police cells made available
through Operation Safeguard – the agreed process which provides
additional overnight capacity.
Non-urgent maintenance work is being staggered so that fewer
cells are taken offline at any one point in time. Priority
maintenance which is required for safety reasons or which is
helping boost capacity has continued. In addition, where safe to
do so, further cells have been made double occupancy, creating
around 800 extra prison places.
