British Government Plans to Expand Prisons

LONDON — British home office secretary John Reid recently outlined a prison building program that would add 8,000 prison beds to the jail system by 2011, in addition to the 900 extra beds already under construction.

Other measures include tougher sentencing for violent offenders, unanimous parole board decisions to release prisoners, the abolishment of reduced sentences at appeal and stricter penalties for bail-jumpers and license-breachers.

In other news, the home office is also considering an early release program as an immediate way of alleviating the population crunch at English and Welsh jails, which are bowing under the weight of 79,000 inmates.

Inmates eligible for early release would be those with sentences ranging from more than four weeks to less than four years. The Home Office says early release would fall under a section of the penal code called “prison rule nine,” which allows prisoners to be temporarily released for a variety of reasons.