Govt pays £459 a night for police cells
Monday, 28 January 2008 12:00 AM
Prisoners are once again being held in police cells, at a cost of £459 a night.
Prison reformers and opposition politicians criticised the figure, claiming taxpayers are paying the price for the government's penal policy.
The nightly cost compares to an average of £77 a night needed to keep a male prisoner in a category B prison.
The Liberal Democrats point out it is equivalent to a week-long stay in a Canary Island villa, as well as more than the government's original estimate of £385 a night.
Prisoners are held in police cells under Operation Safeguard, which is designed to enable the prison service to accommodate a rising prisoner population.
A Ministry of Justice (MoJ) spokeswoman insisted the overall costs of Operation Safeguard had not risen.
She explained the original estimate of £385 was based on previous use of police cells in 2002 but the current estimate is from a more realistic assessment based on recent costs.
But the Liberal Democrats insisted ministers had "massively underestimated" the full costs of prison overcrowding.
Lib Dem justice spokeswoman Jenny Willott said: "For £460 per night, a family could buy a week-long stay in a holiday villa in the Canaries.
"The government has put us in this hopeless position by failing to plan for the future while putting record numbers behind bars in an effort to appear tough on crime.
"Rather than spending public money sensibly on our police forces and measures to reduce re-offending, the government is squandering millions on increasingly desperate attempts to find places to house prisoners."
Figures show more than 60,000 prisoners were held in police cells last year at an estimated cost of £28 million.
The Prison Reform Trust said the scale shows many police cells are inappropriately used.
The trust's Juliet Lyon said: "If the government focused on investing in drug and alcohol treatment for addicts, court diversion schemes for the mentally ill and effective community sentences, we would see both prison numbers and crime falling."
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