# Prison Ships.



## jaigee (Feb 8, 2006)

*On the BBC website today:*


_Home Office plans floating jails _
*The Home Office is moving ahead with plans to use prison ships to ease overcrowding in prisons. *

_Britain's last floating prison - HMP Weare, moored at Portland Harbour in Dorset - closed last year. _
_The government has advertised for contractors to provide up to 800 places on ships in England and Wales. _
_The move comes as the first prisoners were moved into designated police cells as part of the plans to alleviate the overcrowding crisis. _

_*If you use ships and prison cells which are not appropriate for dealing with prisoners' needs many of them will come out and commit more crimes *_
_Frances Crook, Howard League for Penal Reform _

_The Home Office said 47 inmates were being housed in cells under Operation Safeguard. _
_Home Secretary John Reid accepted the move was "necessary and pragmatic". But the Conservatives labelled it a "short-term and costly measure". _
_Nineteen police forces have made about 240 cells available. _
_The director of the Howard League for Penal Reform has criticised the Home Office's decision to advertise for spaces on ships and warned it could lead to more prisoner re-offending. _
*Jails badly affected *
_Frances Crook said: "If you use ships and prison cells which are not appropriate for dealing with prisoners' needs many of them will come out and commit more crimes. So the Home Secretary will be responsible for more crimes. _
_"I want to see him supporting successful community sentences. It's not the whole answer but is a step in the right direction." _
_The jail population has reached 79,714 - 65 below the all-time high of two weeks ago. _
_But using police cells became necessary last weekend because jails in some parts of the country have been more badly affected than others. _

_*We have only had to resort to it because of the government's utter failure *_
_David Davis _
_Shadow home secretary _

_The Home Office spokeswoman said there was potential for 520 police cells to be used during October and November if they were needed. _
_"The number of cells has been agreed with chief constables, who have used their operational judgment as to how many cells they can staff and make available." _
_The measures would help to "manage the short-term pressures on the prison population" and would be kept under close review, she said. _
*'Desperate' act *
_But shadow home secretary David Davis said the measures would only buy the government a few weeks and would "place even more burdens on our police". _
_"We have only had to resort to it because of the government's utter failure to address the chronic lack of capacity in our prisons." _
_Operation Safeguard was last used in 2002, when 275 prisoners were placed in police cells as a result of an overcrowding crisis. _
_By then, the number of people imprisoned in England and Wales had reached 72,000. _
_The emergency measure can be used under The Imprisonment (Temporary Provisions) Act of 1980, which enables prisoners - sent to prison by the courts - to be held by police if there is no room for them to enter the prison system. _

_*Using police cells to warehouse prisoners is a desperate measure with no pretence at decency or rehabilitation *_
_Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon _


_The move can only be activated by the Home Office - through the director general of the Prison Service. _
_Campaign group the Prison Reform Trust was also critical of the measures, accusing the home secretary of desperation. _
_Juliet Lyon, the charity's director, said: "Police stations are generally not equipped for visits, exercise or association. _
*'Desperate measure' *
_"Using police cells to warehouse prisoners is a desperate measure with no pretence at decency or rehabilitation." _
_She said the trust was worried about the risks police officers faced in "trying to look after very vulnerable people with no space or resources to do so". _
_Under the system police cells are used mainly to contain adult male prisoners who have been remanded into custody to appear in court. _
_The most serious offenders (category A); those at risk of self-harm or escaping; women inmates; those under 18; people on trial at a crown court and anyone needing medical care are thought to be unlikely to be housed in police cells. _
_Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: "Prison cells are enormously expensive, and looking after prisoners will be a huge distraction for the police." _

_Story from BBC NEWS:_
_http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/6072454.stm_

_Published: 2006/10/21 08:58:56 GMT_


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## Steve Woodward (Sep 4, 2006)

The prison ship now moored in Portland Harbour ( I think) was removed from service because it's 'facilities' were not good enough - we dreamed of facilities like that on a couple of ships I sailed on 
Flog-em I say


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## jaigee (Feb 8, 2006)

Steve Woodward said:


> The prison ship now moored in Portland Harbour ( I think) was removed from service because it's 'facilities' were not good enough - we dreamed of facilities like that on a couple of ships I sailed on
> Flog-em I say


But at least we were allowed to go ashore. (*))


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## jim barnes (Dec 7, 2005)

jaigee said:


> But at least we were allowed to go ashore. (*))


 SOME TIMES NOT(Jester)


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## benjidog (Oct 27, 2005)

I remember the accounts of "hulks" in Dickens - used for this purpose in Victorian times.

I know a lot of people want to get back to Victorian values but I think this is a step too far. What we need to do is discover a new continent on the other side of the world and send them all there. 

Brian


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## K urgess (Aug 14, 2006)

Another Planet?(?HUH)


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## mcgurggle (Jul 31, 2005)

We in Belfast have the (in)famous Crumlin Rd. Jail which is lying idle while the 'idiocrats' decide whether to turn it into luxury appartments or offices. !! I say....'Fill it with S***'. Oh & BTW....Con's should be digging drains, shoveling ****e, cleaning public places etc...& NOT being PAID to play Scrabble & Video games (as we have been told lately by the media) .
Phew (deep breath) !!!(MAD) 
Had to get that off my titz (==D) 
McG
Ps. If you try to print the word SHIIT (you know?) it is filtered as ****. Whereas if you type '****e', you get the full effect...!(Thumb)


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## jim barnes (Dec 7, 2005)

benjidog said:


> . What we need to do is discover a new continent on the other side of the world and send them all there.
> 
> Brian


 the first one is full, won't accept any one with a criminal record now.
did you hear about a POM landing in Sydney on a flight from London, asked by immigration if he had a criminal record? he said he didn't realise it was still compulsory ! put him back on the next flight back to London(Jester)


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## rushie (Jul 5, 2005)

Superb idea...but this time not in Portland Harbour....out in the Bay of Biscay in Force 9 conditions.....bollox to 'em and their human rights.....they're there for a reason..?

Rushie


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## Keltic Star (Jan 21, 2006)

Should give the contract to Easycruise.


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## david (Oct 14, 2004)

Good one Jim!!
Unfortunately we(The Oz Government) are still icarcerating poor SOB's who are fleeing from big troubles on hulks.
This time it is the remnants of Nauru Island (refer to other posts).
There was an interesting piece in one of the Tabloids yesterday that claimed that the costs of keeping some poor b*****d on Nauru, ON HIS OWN!!!! was in the vicinity of 15 MILLION OZ dollars per year in the form of backhanders and so forth to a failed government,whose people are on the brink of collapse due to obesity and diabeties because they find it easier to open a can of sardines rather than go out and catch a few fish off the beach.
Bring It on Shipmates.
Regards,
David D.


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## janathull (Aug 31, 2005)

The ship in Portland harbour was the ex Bibby,s Bibby Resolution. I did 5 months on her at Emden when she was used to accomodate Volkswagon car workers, it was good enough for them. Her next job was as a prison in New York and it was good enough for them, I can,t understand how it is not good enough for British prisoners.


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## paisleymerchant (Mar 15, 2007)

I was just about to say that the ship in Portland was the "Bibby Resolution" and like the previous post I too was on her in Emden when she was being converted into a Prison Ship
I remember that we were sent home for 3 weeks and then flown to New York til the vessel was handed over to the Corrections Department.
I was there for 3 weeks then flown home, later i heard that when the "prison barge" did get populated by cons 2 of them did a runner in the first week!


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## Paul UK (Jun 13, 2005)

In the words of our lord Kenny Everett

I,m gonna round em up put em in a field and bomb the ba****ds

either that or find a cold windswept isle in scotland build a wall right round it and call HMP Loch Alcatraz.

Paul:sweat:


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## Keith Adams (Nov 5, 2006)

To Jim Barnes... really enjoyed your joke and am still laughing! Snowy


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## STRAWBERRY (Jan 11, 2006)

It is still in Portland but renamed Jascon 23, I remember playing 5 a side footie on it when she was accomodation for troops alongside in Port Stanley in the falklands 1985. Andy


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