Reform UK Proposes Sending 10,000 Foreign Prisoners Abroad to Scrap Early Releases
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Aug 10
Reform UK Proposes Sending 10,000 Foreign Prisoners Abroad to Scrap Early Releases
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Aug 10
Summary
Reform UK said all foreign offenders given custodial sentences should serve them overseas, arguing that removing 10,134 foreign nationals from prisons in England and Wales would help end Labour’s early-release plan.
El Salvador, Estonia, Lithuania and Kosovo are being explored for rented prison space, with Nigel Farage claiming El Salvador could hold inmates at about half the UK cost under British-standard conditions.
The plan also calls for deporting foreign offenders given non-custodial sentences and building 12,400 emergency “Nightingale” prison places, which Reform says would offset law changes adding 18,000 inmates.
Labour said the proposal would take years to arrange and would not ease immediate pressure, while Reform did not explain whether remand prisoners—about a third of foreign inmates—would be included.
The clash comes as England and Wales’ prison population stands at 86,495, or 97% of usable capacity, with 5,000 prisoners due for early release from October and capacity forecast to be breached by November.