Is Labour Really Considering Sending Prisoners To Estonian Jails? Here's What You Need To Know

Ministers are allegedly considering sending prisoners over to jails in Estonia to cope with the UK’s overcrowding crisis.

Reports claim the ministry of justice and its Estonian counterparts are looking at pairing up after the Eastern European country offered to rent out its prison spaces to other nations.

Although any such deal is far from confirmed – and No.10 is keeping its card close to its chest – here’s what we know so far.

Why could prisoners be sent to Estonian jails?

It’s no secret that the UK is struggling to know what to do with its prisoners at the moment.

Last month, capacity in men’s prisons dropped to just 83 spare spaces.

The last government dropped its target of building 20,000 new prison places by the mid-2020s – although four more prisons are still in the pipelines – even as the prison population is predicted to rise from around 89,000 to up to 106,300 by March 2027.

Meanwhile, Estonia has a very low crime rate and therefore has nearly half of all its prison spaces are free – but it is looking for a boost to its economy, which is where the UK could come in.

Estonian justice secretary Liisa Pakosta, told The Telegraph: “The UK and Estonia have a history of successful international cooperation, and such a partnership would create further opportunities to benefit and learn from each other.”

She said the UK is a “potential partner” because “both countries share a reputation for safe, secure prisons with comparable standards and rehabilitative opportunities”.

Pakosta was expected to discuss the option with UK justice secretary Shabana Mahmood in Lithuania at the sidelines of a Council of Europe event on Thursday.

However, Estonia’s cabinet have to discuss the plan and it needs to get parliamentary approval before it can go ahead.

Still, the UK’s ministry of justice has said it is looking at “all viable options” to increase capacity because prisons are “at the point of collapse”, the Daily Telegraph reported.

What are the pros – and cons – of such a plan?

Head of prison governors’ union, the PGA, Tom Wheatley, told The Independent that it was not “a solution”.

He said: “It isn’t clear whether this will come to anything and the PGA have not been consulted on any plans, but it’s never going to be game changer that changes the structural problem of demand for prison places outstripping supply in England and Wales.”

He suggested reviewing the “sentence inflation” of the last 35 years, instead.

But, former justice secretary Alex Chalk first suggested using Estonia’s space at the Conservative conference last year.

It was largely written off (by Labour) due to the potential expense, and perceived by critics as a supposed sign of Tory incompetence.

However, the alternative to sending prisoners to Estonia might be even more expensive. 

In Eastern Europe and Baltic states, it costs between £10,000 and £20,000 to house each prisoner (although negotiations could push that price up for inmates coming from another country).

Meanwhile, the cost of housing a prisoner in England and Wales is nearly £50,000 and the cost of building a jail is £600,000 per prisoner.

There is also a precedent in renting prison space from other countries.

Norway and Belgium previously rented prison space from the Netherlands – and it costs nearly £100,000 to house a prisoner there.

What has the government actually said?

Borders security minister Dame Angela Eagle refused to rule out the plan when speaking to the media on Friday.

She said the government was “considering all sorts of actions to deal with the crisis we have been left by the previous government in prisons and the criminal justice system.”

Eagle told Sky News: “We have inherited an absolute crisis in our prison system with very few places remaining there.

“The last government closed loads of prison places and didn’t replace any of them.

“Colleagues in the ministry of justice will be considering anything they can to alleviate the problem.

“What we cannot have is people who were convicted of violent and serious crimes not being able to be in jail.”

Ministers already reduced some prison sentences last month, when inmate numbers swelled in response to the violent far-right riots which broke out at the start of August.

Around 2,000 inmates are set for early release next Tuesday, which would them to leave 40% of the way through their sentence.

And a No.10 spokesperson said: “The Lord Chancellor has been clear that we have to bring in reforms to tackle the prison capacity crisis.

“That’s why, alongside our commitments to build more prisons, we will be publishing a 10-year strategy in the autumn to set out how we will ensure we always have the places that we need to keep dangerous defenders behind bars.”

On reports of a potential deal with Estonia, they added: “I would point out that this was the policy of the former government but this government has made no such plans or announcements with regards to Estonia.”

They added that the government will only look at options which are “practical and deliver value for money for the taxpayer”.