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Prisons are being prepared to cope with a sudden influx of offenders in case there is a repeat of last summer’s riots, the justice minister, James Timpson, has told the Guardian.
Hundreds of extra makeshift cells and newly refurbished cells will be in use by the end of this year, officials have disclosed, as the prisons minister said there will be “no more emergency measures” such as early release schemes.
“We need to be prepared for the capacity that would be needed if we had the riots, the civil disobedience, [we saw] in the summer. We’re clear there are no more emergency measures to do. We just need to make sure we use all of the operational levers we have,” he said.
Prisons across England and Wales were 100 spaces away from reaching full capacity last August after more than 1,280 arrests during riots sparked by misinformation about the murders of three girls in Southport.
The “operational levers” being pulled by ministers this year to try to avoid a repeat scenario include hundreds of “rapid deployment cells”, makeshift secure rooms that will be set up in the grounds of existing prisons. Another 350 cells that have been in a state of disrepair are being fixed up for use, sources said.
Minister were forced to introduce emergency measures to hold those arrested, charged and convicted last summer. It is understood that the Ministry of Justice’s latest preparations are not a result of any specific intelligence warning of riots.
The riots took place between 30 July and 7 August following false claims circulated by far-right activists that the perpetrator of the Southport attack was a Muslim and an asylum seeker.
Ministers were forced to activate Operation Early Dawn, when defendants were held in police custody and only brought to court if prison places were first confirmed as available.
More than 500 new prison places were made available under emergency measures to hold arrested rioters at Stocken prison in Rutland and the newly repurposed HMP Cookham Wood, a former young offender institution in Borstal, Kent.
Before the riots, the government had already implemented emergency measures to help ease short-term capacity pressures on prisons. More than 3,000 prisoners have been released on licence after serving 40% of their sentence, rather than the usual 50%.
A Whitehall source said the cells being installed this year will be needed regardless of any sudden increases in demand because of the overcrowding crisis inherited by Labour.
Lord Timpson, a surprise private sector recruit to Keir Starmer’s ministerial team, spoke to the Guardian at the launch of a 700-place expansion of HMP Highpoint near Haverhill, Suffolk, which will make it the largest prison in the UK.
New “house blocks” built over the next two years will include workshops and educational facilities to teach prisoners skills that could help them secure a job on release.
As chief executive of the eponymous shoe repair chain Timpsons, Timpson has been responsible for training and employing hundreds of former prisoners, which he believes is vital to reducing demand for more prisons.
“One of the ways we’re going to combat this ever-increasing demand on prison places is when people leave, they don’t come back. When 80% of offending is reoffending, something is not working. We have to get people ready to leave,” Timpson said.
Many of Highpoint’s 1,300 inmates – men convicted of non-violent offences such as drug-related crimes, burglary and theft – should be retrained and spend more time serving community orders, Timpson said.
Inmates at the prison can apply for employment and retraining including railway maintenance, electronic recycling and clothes recycling schemes. Some of the courses can offer a guaranteed job once they are freed.
Despite being incarcerated at one of the UK’s best resourced prisons, Highpoint inmates face waiting lists of over 100 for some courses, they told the Guardian.
One Highpoint prisoner said: “There are courses here, there is work here, but you can’t get on the vocational courses. So unless you are lucky, or know the right people, you don’t get training before you get out.” A report by the prisons watchdog last year found that too few Highpoint prisoners were attending purposeful activity or receiving adequate education or training.
Other inmates said there was little point being behind bars facing lengthy sentences unless they learn new skills.
Ross Payton, 33, from Harlow, Essex, who has served four years of a 24-year sentence for supplying drugs and guns, said: “I have changed since being here – I do not want to ever come back to prison – but I don’t see the point in just sitting in my cell, not doing anything.”
Timpson acknowledged that there are too few vocational opportunities in prison, a problem exacerbated by the rise in the number of prisoners.
“The prison population has increased – a lot of the cells here will be double cells now – but the number of courses and workshops haven’t doubled,” he said.
Expanding courses and workshop options will require more public money – but the Ministry of Justice’s budget is vulnerable to cuts at the spring statement on 26 March because the department is “unprotected”, Timpson said.
“We’re an unprotected department and, like all the other unprotected departments, we need to put our case forward to the chancellor for the spending review. I come from a commercial background and am very interested in the money and finances but it’s out of my hands,” he said.
Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, disclosed last month that prisoners may be given the chance to earn their freedom through “good behaviour credits” after examining a similar scheme in Texas.
