- UK explores sending convicts to Estonian prisons to ease overcrowding
- Estonia offers half-empty prisons for rent to other countries
- Labour government considering costly transfer proposal despite concerns
British convicts may be transferred to Estonian jails as part of a new effort to alleviate overcrowding in the country’s prisons.
The Eastern European country has revealed that it will rent out prison rooms to other states, as many of its prisons are half-empty due to its low crime rate.
The Ministry of Justice is believed to be looking into ‘all conceivable possibilities’ for freeing up space in UK prisons that were ‘on the verge of collapse.
According to government sources, the proposal was ‘on the table’ in response to the escalating overcrowding crisis affecting institutions, with men’s jails in England and Wales virtually running out of rooms last August.
It comes as some judges have been cautioned not to imprison people for minor offenses, and some criminals are likely to be released early to alleviate overcrowding in Britain’s jails.
Estonia’s Minister of Justice, Liisa Pakosta, previously stated that the program might be worth £25 million and that Britain and Sweden are already in talks to send criminals to the Baltic nation.
The idea might also provide a much-needed cash boost to the Baltic country and help to strengthen its finances.
Pakosta stated: “Half of the spaces are empty.” And I have indeed submitted a memo to the federal cabinet for debate to determine which way to take with the solution.
According to the Telegraph, Britain’s Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and Pakosta are expected to discuss the prison room rental program behind closed doors at a Council of Europe gathering in Lithuania on Thursday.
Ms Pakosta told the publication: “The UK and Estonia have a history of successful international cooperation, and such a partnership would create additional opportunities to benefit and learn from each other.
The overall number of inmates in England and Wales as of August 30 was 88,350, the most since 2011.
It is a 116-point increase from the previous week’s figure of 88,234, and nearly 1,000 higher than at the start of the month, when there were 87,362 people in prison.
It comes as Germany announced that it wanted the EU to deport migrants to Rwanda and use facilities already put up to receive those coming into the UK by boat before Labour rejected the idea.
Berlin’s migration commissioner, Joachim Stamp, has advocated deporting those who enter the bloc illegally over Poland’s border with Belarus.
Germany’s special envoy for migration agreements stated that the EU may use existing asylum facilities in Rwanda, which were originally meant for arrivals from Britain.
One of Sir Keir Starmer’s first acts after winning the election in July was to stop the initiative before it ever began after the Tory government had already spent £290 million.
Ex-Conservative justice secretary Alex Chalk proposed shipping prisoners to Estonia, which has a population of 1.3 million, during a conference last year.
However, Labour opposed the concept at the time, with the Prison Reform Trust calling it ‘half-baked’.
However, the new Labour government is allegedly considering the concept, despite warnings from officials about the high cost.
Since gaining office, Labour has reduced the proportion of the sentence convicts must serve in prison from 50% to 40%.
The temporary relocation, which begins on September 10, is likely to result in the release of 5,500 criminals in September and October.
It does not apply to persons convicted of sex offenses, terrorism, domestic abuse, or certain serious crimes.
Those who are released early will serve the remainder of their sentence under strict community licensing restrictions.
However, renting prison cells is not a novel concept; Norway and Belgium have previously paid for cell places in the Netherlands.
However, officials have chosen against renting prison cells in other jurisdictions, notably the Netherlands, which pays £100,000 per prisoner.
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The average cost per inmate in Estonia and Eastern Europe is substantially lower, estimated to be between £10,000 and £20,000.
The cost of housing a prisoner in England and Wales is nearly £50,000, with the construction of a jail costing £600,000 per inmate.
According to the Telegraph, government officials estimate that any negotiations will increase the cost by twofold.
The program would also result in higher expenditures for flights and transporting UK jail officials to other countries.
Additional problems have been raised, including whether taxpayers would be obligated to pay for offenders’ relatives to visit them abroad.
A source who was involved in detailing plans during the previous Conservative government told the Telegraph: ‘It was incredibly expensive – maybe prohibitively so.’
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice stated, “The new government inherited a justice system in crisis, with prisons on the verge of collapse.”
‘We will continue to study all realistic possibilities for increasing the number of places in the prison estate so that we can continue to put up dangerous offenders while protecting the public.’
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