Kent PCC calls for more prisons to combat overcrowding

Matthew Scott said more prisons need to be built to combat issues with overcrowding

The solution to overcrowding in prisons is to build more of them, according to the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner.

Matthew Scott said the system needed more capacity to deal with the number of charges brought due to arrests.

The prison population has increased by 8% in the past year and is projected to continue rising, largely down to tougher sentences and court backlogs.

Mr Scott said: "I don't think that reducing the prison population is going to solve our problems.

"Fundamentally we do need more prison places. Of course, we need prison staff to fill them and we need meaningful rehabilitation inside them."

He added: "At the moment we have got a situation where the police are bringing more charges to the courts and we have an issue with capacity."

Figures show 88,782 people currently incarcerated in England and Wales, leaving only 500 empty spaces

Government plans to expand the prison estate could include an expansion of Rochester Prison.

In the south east, Charlie Taylor, HM chief inspector of prisons, told the BBC staffing pressures were affecting Rochester, Maidstone and Lewes prisons, along with Cookham Wood Young Offenders Institution.

Councillor Antony Hook, Kent County Council's Liberal Democrat group leader, said Mr Scott's answer was "far too simplistic".

Mr Hook, a criminal barrister, added: "I'm not sure the building of more prisons would do public protection any good.

"If we're locking up people for longer, then we need to invest heavily in rehabilitation, particularly when prisoners, who are mostly men, are stuck in cells for 23 hours a day.

"Plus, prisons are very expensive to build and run. So a 'build more prisons' policy is not a very fiscally Conservative position," he added.

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