Why won't the British Government build more prisons?

Its the criminal Justice system that's up the creak. Prisons are full with people who should not be there The mentally incompetent and sick ( They shut all the mental hospitals) people locked up for not paying fines maintenance (take the money from them when they get paid, receive the Giro)

The result is the prisons are overcrowded, so the idiots let out the real criminals on parol to kill rape and rob the rest of us. The problem requires a complete overhaul of the way we punish offenders. Lock up real criminals and get the idle sods who dont pay finds or cause a nusance to work in the community clearing up the mess they make

People would fall over each other to make payment on time to 'help the economy'. Don't kid yourself about the US I have lived there and the people are probably more afraid of the government than the Brits and that's saying something.

I think a few people here have hit the nail on the head ,what with just about everything they have "reformed " gone embarrassingly wrong they`re too stubborn to admit that crime isn`t decreasing like they try to convince us ,and building new prisons would make it all the more obvious They are happier letting dangerous people out on the street than lose face over their mistakes, and try to cover it up and show they are "tough on crime "by making countless unnecsessary laws that are not even needed .

Over 17's - Under 25's, don't jail them for persistent petty crimes, or for crimes where there was little or no physical danger to members of the public, have them serve a minimum of 5 years in the armed forces, with normal army pay, and no time off for good behaviour, perhaps then they will show some respect for the majority who work for a living and with luck they may even prefer a regular wage to mugging old ladies and pinching young lassies handbags. But life for serious crimes and life should be a minimum of 15 years, more for murder, in prison and without the comforts of home without having to pay the bills.

The latest news that the prisons have introduced Theme Nights for the inmates including murderer Mrs West, so they can sample international cuisine is starting to convince me prison life sounds better than the life outside and its free, all you have to do is commit a bad crime.

The goodies also include Sat TV, free eduction, free healthcare and dentistry.

No wonder the prisons are full they have been privatised and it seems Club Med has got the contract from Securicore.

Surely the answer is NOT to build more prisons, but to be harsher with criminals, so that they don't want to go back to prison. As it is now, they have a better standard of life/living in there, than a lot of people on the outside do, who abide by the law. So theres no deterrent for them.

Lack of money! Also maybe they don't want to build more prisons because in a way it is admitting that crime is growing! And you know what the government are like - don't want to admit that crime is not on the decrease. They'd rather come up with lame ways of trying to prevent crime (i.e. CSO's).

Maybe if prisoners didn't have such luxuries maybe the government could afford new prisons!

"Not in my back yard". That's what people say.

It's down to money, as well.

To counter the first point, what about building a prison on one of the uninhabited Scottish islands? A sort of Alcatraz.

Costs could be cut by providing more basic facilities for prisoners. Bread and water, no privileges, that sort of thing.

The reason we have need prisons is to put bad people in them. The Govt supposedly has a plan to reduce the number of bad people in society. Now should this plan work, there would be less bad people, so less need for prisons. Um, it appears their plan is not working (prisons are full) so if they built more prisons it would be admitting they have failed.

Actually, why dont they just let the paedophiles and rapests of women and killers of women/children back out onto the streets and let the general public at 'em as they wont last very long. I didnt mention killers of men etc as these are the more dangerous types so theyre the ones that need to be locked up and so by letting these few back onto the street, we prob wouldnt need more prisons and no need to worry bout the paedo's etc, the general public will deal with them no worries.