“Open” Prisons Give Good Results In Great Britain

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 7, 4 July 1949, Page 4

“Open” Prisons Give Good Results In Great Britain

English Prison Commissioners plan to open four new “prisons without bars” in continuation of the experiment which, they claim, has completely justified itself.

One site already chosen is an exR.A.F. hutted camp at Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppery. Others are sought in the Midlands, the South-Western t areas, and (by converting a country house) near London for women convicts.

The last will be the second prison without bars catering solely for women. The first is at Askham Grange, Yorkshire.

MPs Protest

“Open prisons” were introduced in 1946 at Leyhill, Gloucestershire, from which there have been 33 escapes of “dangerous” men in 30 months/Of 437 inmates 32 are convicted murderers.

The other men’s ‘open prison” is at Sudbury, in Derbyshire. In spite of protests from M.P.s over these open prisons, where the convicts can come and go much as they please, the Home Secretary' is so pleased with the result of the experiments he blessed in 1946 that he has approved the plan for more. Says the Home Office: "In the initial stages there were bound to be escapes. But the fact that from Leyhill—where any man can walk: out if he feels inclined — only eight out of 437 escapes last year speaks very highly of the spirit which the staff have managed to engender. “The prison is one for first offenders with sentences of over four years’ penal servitude.”