Ministers admit new 'Titan' jails will be full from day one
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*The new generation of "Titan" jails holding more than 2,000 inmates each will be overcrowded from the moment they open, the Ministry of Justice admitted yesterday as it set out detailed plans for the giant prisons. The admission is fresh evidence of the huge pressure on the penal system, with ministers conceding that far more people are being jailed in several parts of the country than there is room to hold them.
Penal reformers warned that attempts by the Government to build its way out of the prison crisis would backfire as the new "super-jails" would struggle to rehabilitate offenders. The first £350m prison, to be opened by 2012, will be situated in the London area, where the demand for space is most acute. It will be followed by further giant jails in the West Midlands and the North-west.