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Counting the Cost of Thugs
£86,000 a year. That's how much it costs to hold prisoners in Northern Ireland according to a report on an inspection of Magheberry maximum-security prison. The report said that the actual cost at Maghaberry would be higher, making it more than double the cost of any prison in England and Wales.
I'm shocked at the high costs involved in this. I appreciate the need for segregation, but that means each prisoner at Maghaberry costs the same amount as 2½ university lecturers or 4-5 nurses.
Follow up:
The chief inspector of criminal justice, Kit Chivers said "Maghaberry is a complex, maximum security prison which is costly to maintain and resource. Yet this degree of security is not necessary for many prisoners, such as fine defaulters and other short term prisoners. ... This is a problem of having a small prison estate."
How's this for a solution - reopen the Maze (refurbished of course) as a minimum/medium security prison and put all the less serious offenders in there. Of course the only problem with that is finding somewhere else for the new stadium, which is a problem in iself... or is it?