New 'smart' prison aims to rehabilitate nearly 2,000 prisoners

• ITV Central reporter Ravneet Nandra visited the prison ahead of its official opening

Britain's newest male prison has opened in Leicester with the aim of encouraging prisoners to learn new skills and gain qualifications before going back into the community.

HMP Fosse Way is a resettlement prison, which will house nearly 2,000 prisoners who'll take part in daily workshops and classes and find local jobs, which is proven to cut their chance of reoffending.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has also billed it as the greenest prison ever constructed in the UK, because of greener fuels, renewable energy and electric construction machinery.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said the build signals a new approach to prisons by "creating safe, modern places that utilise the latest technology to place rehabilitation and cutting crime at their core" as the Government presses on with its £4 billion construction programme.

There were 71 ex-offenders and prisoners released on temporary licence who were part of the 500 people involved in the construction of the prison.

It is to feature 24 workshops and help offenders learn skills such as how to drive construction vehicles in a simulator, manufacture glasses, and construct concrete components and lighting equipment that can be used in future prison builds.

The new jail, on the site of the old HMP Glen Parva, started accepting a small number of prisoners on May 29.

It will create another 600 jobs, according to the MoJ, and will be operated by Serco following a competitive tendering process.

The build has also seen £180 million spent with local construction suppliers.

Mr Chalk, who met with frontline prison staff at HMP Fosse Way, said the opening means the Government is "a quarter of the way towards completion of the biggest prison-building programme in more than a century"

He added: "The cutting-edge design will give offenders every opportunity to turn around their lives, while also providing a significant boost in this Government's drive to grow the economy."

The MoJ said work is being done to provide immediate extra capacity, including rolling out hundreds of rapid deployment cells at HMP Norwich and HMP Hollesley Bay.

Although, the Prison Reform Trust says these types of prisons come with challenges.

In an interview with ITV News Central, Mark Day, the Deputy Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "The concern we have at the moment is because the number of prisoners are growing, there will be pressure to to get prisoners into the prison as quickly as possible which could lead to instability if not done carefully."

It comes as the Trust releases a new report revealing the extent of the challenge facing the government, as it struggles to respond to the demand for prison places fueled by a rapidly rising prison population.

In the report, The Prison Reform Trust said: "The government's commitment to building 20,000 new prison places by the mid-2020s remains significantly behind schedule, despite a recent increase in activity.

"By 5 June 2023, just 5,202 new places had been constructed.

"Ministry of Justice officials conceded that even if all planned capacity projects are delivered on time, there will be a shortfall of 2,300 prison places by March 2025, according to an internal memo accidentally published at the start of June.

"With government projections that the prison population will rise by a further 7,800 people to reach 93,200 by 2024, the prison service faces an extraordinary challenge simply to keep up with demand—intensifying the strain on existing infrastructure and limiting capacity within the organisation to focus on other pressing priorities, including post-pandemic recovery."

In response to this, the Ministry of Justice told ITV News Central that it has always been clear about delivery dates.

In a statement, the Department said: “We have always been clear that delivery dates are contingent on external matters, including planning permission, but we remain committed to building these prisons as quickly as possible.

“More than 5,000 of the additional 20,000 prison places we are creating have already been delivered, including the brand new HMP Fosse Way which started accepting prisoners on time in May.

"Based on our current forecasts of prison places supply, taking into account current assumptions of how quickly new places will be delivered and brought into use, we expect there to be around over 8,000 complete by the end of May 2025."