Plans to build new children’s prisons in England and Wales known as ‘secure colleges’ have been abandoned by the government, apparently due to concerns about cost efficiency. Secure colleges were only given legal assent in February in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act and at least £5.6m had reportedly been spent on the project already.
The pilot prison had been set to open in Glen Parva, Leicestershire in 2017, with two others in the pipeline. However, the mainstream media reports that significantly falling numbers in youth custody would pose problems for filling the spaces in the new prisons.
‘Secure colleges’ were to be fortified schools, managed by headteachers and offender managers. The Glen Parva site was expected to hold 320 children aged 12-17 who would otherwise have been detained in secure children’s homes, young offenders’ institutions, or secure training centres.
Meanwhile, the construction of the Wrexham super prison steams ahead under the management of international parasites Lend Lease. Join the international action camp against the Titan prison there next month, or take action now.
For more information on secure colleges and other prison expansion plans, see Resisting Secure Colleges, Prison Abolition UK, Community Action on Prison Expansion and the Reclaim Justice Network.