New 'smart' prison with no bars on windows and cells called 'rooms' is no 'soft touch', says justice secretary

The justice secretary has defended a new “smart” prison which does not have bars on its windows and has been designed to drive down crime after being asked if it is a “soft-touch” jail.

Cells at HMP Five Wells in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, will be called “rooms” and inmates “residents” by prison staff to assist in their rehabilitation.

The 1,700-capacity category C jail will also feature a gym, snooker table, table tennis table and a tablet to help prisoners gain new qualifications.

On a visit to the jail, Dominic Raab said inmates at the prison needed to be given “a sense of what life on the outside looks like” because “we are not going to lock everyone up for life”.

Mr Raab told reporters: “I’m interested in punishment, because that’s what the public expect, but I’m not really interested in stigmatising in a way that’s counter-productive to my aim of driving down re-offending.

“What you’ve heard about, which I like, is the idea of giving offenders something to lose.

“If you come to a place like this with the gym, the workshops, the ability to do the skills education, you get a glimmer of the future as to how your life could be.

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“Then it’s up to the offender to take that second chance and if they don’t, they lose those entitlements, they lose those perks.”

Twenty-four workshops will also be available on site and prisoners will be able to get on-the-job training in areas such as coding, car maintenance, forklift truck maintenance, plumbing and engineering.

The new jail, on the site of the old HMP Wellingborough, is the first of six new prisons to be completed, with one in Glen Parva, Leicestershire, currently under construction.

Asked if HMP Five Wells was a “soft-touch” prison, Mr Raab said: “Take the windows, you’re right. You go and look through the window of that cell and you don’t see bars and actually, you get some sunlight in.

“There is definitely something about the hope and the motivation that gives to the state of mind of the offender.

“At the same time, because there are not bars and because they’re very high-secure windows, we’ve got far less contraband coming in, the risk of stuff coming in via drones is much lower.”

He continued: “Prisons need to be secure, they need to punish, but they also need to try to give, because most offenders are going to be released, a sense of what life on the outside looks like.”

Mr Raab added: “I’ll be answerable for this, and we’ve got (key performance indicators) which will judge this, but judge it on the effect it has on driving down reoffending and crime.”

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