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Prisons: Population

My Lords, I apologise to the noble Lord, Lord Henley, for not giving him the final version of the Statement before 2.50 pm. In the 6 May interview on Sky News I was denying that I was coming with a plan for early release. I thank him for wishing me the opposite of resignation. Why are we not using prison ships? We have looked at them; they are more expensive and less effective than the measures that we are taking to build extra prison places. The same applies to redundant military camps and secure mental asylums. The number of people affected is 1,200, not 2,000. There was no briefing from my department yesterday. I welcome the support given by the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, on the Statement. We will use court cells as a temporary measure to get us through the current period, although I entirely accept that they are wholly unsatisfactory, as the noble Lord said. How many court cells will be used? The answer is 1,200, as I told the noble Lord, Lord Henley. Who will supervise them? If a person is released from a sentence of 12 months or less, there is no supervision, because sentences of less than 12 months are not supervised, although there could be recall for misbehaviour. For sentences of more than 12 months, supervision will be carried out by the Probation Service, and that will kick in when the person is released on the home licence. We have debated the issues relating to children and people with mental illnesses on a number of occasions. I do not think that they are affected by the measures I have announced today.