Prefab blocks to boost jails

The Prison Service is to use pre-fabricated buildings to house inmates as the jail population continues to soar. It is buying four blocks, which it described as "ready-made units modified for prison use", which will be installed by December to accommodate 160 inmates at unspecified lower-security prisons.

The Prison Service said it was buying the units "to accommodate the increasing prison population which has risen above projections". The population in the 130 jails in England and Wales is 56,936, a rise of around 13,000 in just over three years. The Prison Reform Trust expressed fears that inmates would be "warehoused".