Shrewsbury’s Dana Prison set to close
The Dana Prison in Shrewsbury is one of six set to close across the country it was revealed today.
The five other prisons to close are Bullwood Hall in Essex, Canterbury, Gloucester, Kingston in Portsmouth and Shepton Mallet.
Some 2,600 offenders are held at the prisons targeted for closure by the Ministry of Justice.
It is understood Shrewsbury's Dana prison along with the five other sites would close by the end of the current financial year in March, raising questions over where the inmates will go, and what will happen to prison officers' jobs.
There is currently around 300 prisoners at the Shrewsbury site with 189 staff members employed. The prison is a category C site mostly housing many sex offenders.
Replacing the six closing sites would be a new prison which could hold more than 2,000 prisoners – around a quarter more than the largest current facility. The new prison is likely to be in London, the North West or North Wales.
The programme is part of a drive to build new capacity to replace older prisons and bring down the cost of the prison system. It is expected to save £63 million a year.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said: "We have to bring down the cost of our prison system, much of which is old and expensive. But I never want the Courts to be in a position where they cannot send a criminal to prison because there is no place available. So we have to move as fast as we can to replace the older parts of our prison system.
"At present, we have buildings within the prison estate which date back to the 18th Century. Prisons are not all located where we would want them to be to best meet the needs of the courts or support resettlement and there is an annual maintenance cost of approximately £184m. There is clear evidence that by replacing old uneconomic places with modern prison capacity we can drive substantial savings for the taxpayer and I am determined to do just that.
"That’s why we are moving ahead with immediate plans for new prison capacity, as well as closing older and more expensive facilities.
"It’s also why I am now moving ahead with planning for the next generation of new prisons."
