Charity bid to run prisons fails

The prisons are located in Merseyside and London

A charity that campaigns for penal reform has failed in its bid to run two new jails.

Nacro had applied to the Ministry of Justice to run the prisons located at Belmarsh West in south London and Maghull in Merseyside.

A Nacro spokesman said their bid would have made both prisons exemplars of "high quality rehabilitation".

Serco Group plc, the international service company, was selected as the "preferred bidder" for the contracts.

Its consortium has been selected by the UK government's National Offender Management Service (NOMS).

These new prisons form an important part of the government's extensive prison building programme, which aims to provide 96,000 places by 2014 Ministry of Justice spokeswoman

Serco will operate the prisons and these contracts are expected to have a combined value to Serco of about £600m over 26½ years.

The prisons will be designed and built to Category B standards, and will accommodate up to 900 male prisoners for Belmarsh West and 800 for Maghull.

The company will run the prisons in conjunction with its partners Turning Point and Catch22.

Serco already manages four adult prisons, a Young Offenders Institution, and a Secure Training Centre for young people, as well as providing electronic monitoring and court escort services.

Paul Cavadino, chief executive of Nacro, said: "We are naturally disappointed that the consortium involving Nacro has failed to win a contract for either prison.

"We believe that the regime we had jointly designed would have made both prisons exemplars of high quality rehabilitation and resettlement.

'Best value'

"We wish Catch 22, Turning Point and their partners well and hope that they will be able to deliver an effective rehabilitative regime for prisoners detained at Belmarsh West and Maghull."

Nacro was established in 1966 and provides resettlement services in 40 prisons, public and private, across England and Wales.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman added: "These new prisons form an important part of the Government's extensive prison building programme, which aims to provide 96,000 places by 2014.

"A number of contractors bid for these projects and we are grateful for their input and involvement, but we believe that Serco offered us the best value for money solution."