11 October 2007 - Green Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has demanded the Government scraps plans to double the size of a Kent prison - and an end to the practise of imprisoning asylum-seekers awaiting decision or deportation.

Planners at Medway Council yesterday considered Home Office plans to expand the capacity of HMP Rochester from 392 to about 700. But no planning permission is required, despite objections from prison reformers, nearby residents and conservationists, as prison development is exempt from planning laws and local democratic control.

Commenting as Medway councillors met to discuss the case, Dr Lucas said: "The fact is that in the vast majority of cases prison just doesn’t work.

"Reports by Cambridge University - and even the Home Office itself - demonstrate that so-called restorative justice, an alternative to prison based not on punishment alone but on dealing constructively with both victim and offender - could cut re-offending rates by as much as 80 per cent and enjoyed the confidence of more than three-quarters of all victims of crime.

"But despite this, the Government’s approach to justice remains fixated on detention.

"The planned expansion of HMP Rochester is just one strand of a nationwide programme to increase the state’s capacity to lock more and more people up.

"Not only does prison not work (a staggering 82 per cent of male adolescents prisoners re-offend within two years) - it is incredibly expensive: to the taxpayer, society in general, and victims themselves."

In a letter to Secretary of State for Justice Jack straw urging him to intervene and scrap the Rochester expansion plans, Dr Lucas also hit out at the Government’s much-condemned policy of incarcerating asylum-seekers - whether or not they are guilty of any criminal offence - while a decision is made on whether they should be able to seek refuge in the UK.

She added: "The Government’s policy of locking up asylum-seekers is not only inhumane, it has been condemned by the UN as probably unlawful - and it’s pointless too. According to figures from the Refugee Council, few asylum seekers seek to abscond, even those whose applications are denied.

"I trust the Government’s plans to expand Rochester Prison haven’t been informed by asylum policy, and I call on Mr Straw to confirm that he has no plans to hold either refugees or asylum seekers at the site."

ENDS

Read Caroline’s letter of objection and the Government’s response