Jails adapted for foreign inmates

Foreign prisoners: Focus on deportations, say ministers

The Prison Service has converted two jails so that they hold only foreign national prisoners, it is revealed.
Bullwood Hall, Essex, and Canterbury Prison, Kent, have been taking foreign offenders since the 2006 crisis over prisoners who had not been deported.

The Ministry of Justice said the jails which have immigration and language services were part of a plan to deport as many foreign prisoners as possible.

More than 11,000 of the 81,000 prison population are foreign nationals.

In 2006 the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke was sacked over the Home Office's failure to process the cases of 1,000 foreign national prisoners who could have been eligible for deportation.

The decision to convert two prisons just for foreign inmates came as the department reviewed its deportation strategy.

But the move to set up the two specialist prisons has come with virtually no publicity.

The names of the jails emerged in a briefing by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers. Bullwood Hall is now holding 154 prisoners, while a further 284 are at Canterbury.

About 11,000 others are detained elsewhere alongside British prisoners.

Ms Owers said the two prisons had been given specific services for foreign inmates, including language support and advice on immigration issues.

She said it was easier to provide these services in one place and the move was similar to other specialist prisons such as those for juveniles.

The Independent Monitoring Board, which reports on prison conditions, said staff at Bullwood Hall had been unprepared for the move, but at Canterbury it was working well.