LEYHILL open prison could expand to help tackle a national overcrowding crisis.
The Ministry of Justice has applied to South Gloucestershire Council for planning permission to build two blocks, each two storeys tall, to house 120 prisoners, as well as a healthcare unit, workshop, boiler house and offender management unit.
Established in the 1940s, the open prison near Cromhall houses inmates towards the end of their sentences, with a focus on rehabilitation and preparing for release.
Three prisoners recently absconded from the jail, and concerns have been raised that more inmates could increase the crime risk to the local community.
Councillors on the development management committee will vote on whether to permit the plans tomorrow.
An architects’ statement in support of the plans said: “The project aligns with the Ministry of Justice’s strategic goals to ensure that prisons offer safe, productive and decent living and working environments, safeguard the public from offender-related harm, diminish reoffending rates, and enhance the prospects for offenders.”
A planning officer’s report says Cromhall Parish Council is objecting to the plans, which would increase the inmate population at a prison “with a history of absconds”.
No local residents commented on a public consultation about the planned expansion.
National shortage of prison places
There is a national shortage of places in prisons and overcrowding. Tens of thousands of prisoners have been released early, and the government has reduced the automatic release point from halfway through sentences to 40% of the way through for many offenders.
Last December the government said it was pressing ahead with “the biggest jail expansion since the Victorian era”.
HMP Leyhill was previously a wartime hospital, before opening as a prison in 1946.
It was rebuilt in the late 1970s and early 1980s and currently has a capacity of around 500 inmates.
This could gradually increase to more than 800 over the next few years.
By Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporting Service
Picture: What one of the new blocks at HMP Leyhill could look like, produced by engineering consultants BakerHicks