Britain’s cushiest jail
The rooms – not cells – have laptops, showers, TVs and phones ... oh, and the warders have to knock before they come in!
‘They’re not prisoners, they are men’
LIGHT and airy, with two comfy beds, a computer, phone and shower, this could be student accommodation or a budget hotel.
In fact, it’s Britain’s newest prison, a £212million showpiece with home comforts for inmates who are behind bars for serious crimes such as sex attacks and violence.
Convicts at the super-prison will be held in rooms – not cells, they will be given phones to say goodnight to their children and guards will have to knock to enter.
HMP Berwyn, a category C prison that holds 2,100 men on the outskirts of Wrexham, north Wales, began taking prisoners on Monday, and will be one of the biggest jails in Europe when it starts operating at full capacity this year.
Inmates will be able to use PCs and laptops to arrange visits, order meals, buy food, drinks and toiletries from the prison shop and work on their studies – but they will not have access to the internet.
Phones will only be available to those who earn the privilege, and they will only be able to call numbers that have been checked and approved by prison staff.
The jail also has its own sniffer dogs to find drugs that are smuggled in.
Governor Russ Trent, a former Royal Marine, wants custody to be like to being in the community because it is more ‘civilised’.
The measures are central to the vision of Justice Secretary Liz Truss, who has pledged to improve rehabilitation. But critics say her proposals are ‘drivel’, and show that jails are becoming ‘ holiday camps’. They said the regime risked making the jail one of the country’s cushiest. But Mr Trent said: ‘It’s important that when people have been sent to a custodial setting, when they are released into the community they have a chance of living a law-abiding life and can support their family.
‘People are being taken away from their families and their homes – that is the punishment.
‘While they’re here, it’s our job to give them every chance to better themselves, with better work opportunities and being someone the community can be proud of.’
Nick Dann, deputy project director at HMP Berwyn, said: ‘I can assure you, it is not cushy.’ But he added: ‘They are not prisoners, they are men. If you keep calling someone an offender or exoffender, that’s how they will act.’
Mr Trent has divided the prison into three wings of 700 inmates and will run a collegiate system similar to universities such as Oxford and Cambridge so inmates feel a sense of belonging to their wing. It has an artificial football pitch, gyms, an education block, workshops, a sports hall, health centre and multi-faith area.
Tory Philip Davies, of the Commons’ justice select committee, said jail was for punishment, adding: ‘We should rehabilitate prisoners but without turning their cell into something that would not look out of place in a hotel.’