Prison ships not welcome in the borough

10:02am Tuesday 26th January 2010 in News

A PROSPECTIVE MP has blasted David Cameron’s support of prison ships, saying Tilbury could be a target if the Tories come to power.

Labour councillor Carl Morris, who is hoping to replace Andrew Mackinlay as the borough’s MP in May, says that ships are not the answer to overcrowding in jails.

The Tory leader announced that the party would reintroduce the jail ships if it wins the election in May.

Mr Morris said: “The Tory leader has spoken about re-introducing prison ships at the weekend and I’m ready to fight if they look at Tilbury again.

“We successfully fought these stupid ideas in both 2004 and 2006. In the first instance I think the ship was even brought to the Thames but never used.

“The idea of mooring a ship off our riverfront and filling it with prisoners is abhorrent to me, and I’m sure it’s equally repugnant to residents across our borough.”

Mr Morris said a prison ship would fly in the face of hard work to regenerate Thurrock.

He added: “All that good work will be undone in one fell swoop if Tory-Toff David Cameron gets his way and puts a prison ship here.

“Unfortunately it seems Tilbury’s like a magnet for these crazy ideas and I’m determined it won’t happen again.

“I know it’s just a ‘proposal’ and I know I’m likely to be accused of scaremongering, but we’ve got to scupper these senseless ideas quickly before proposals become plans and plans become actions.”

Mr Morris’ political rival, prospective Conservative MP Jackie Doyle Price said she would also fight any plans for a prison anywhere in Thurrock, if any emerged.

She said: "Let me be quite clear - I would fight any proposal to site any kind of prison in Thurrock.

“There has been no suggestion that a ship would be moored at Tilbury. I do not think it good politics to whip up hysteria about something which is not under discussion.

We need a new politics where politicians engage honestly with the public. I will."

Comments(10)

karen29 says...
11:03am Tue 26 Jan 10

And Labour's solution to prison overcrowding is to let everyone out early after serving a fraction of their jail term. The criminal justice system is a joke. Time and time again we see people jailed only to see them out on the street a few months later. How can that be right?

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Make Thurrock Better says...
11:14am Tue 26 Jan 10

Prison ships are a great idea as long as we can give them all a viking funeral.

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Chris12 says...
12:42pm Tue 26 Jan 10

We can't have it both ways. Either we want people locked up for longer and an end to early release due to lack of space, or we accept that more permanent prisons are built and we pay for this through taxes.
Ships, in the short-term, seem a sensible plan for low category offenders who are on shorter sentences or for those nearing the end of their sentence before release.

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Freddy K says...
2:23pm Tue 26 Jan 10

they should make prisons harder rather than like low quality hotels, make the prisoners do hard graft, that way there may be less reoffending.

Prison ships are a way forward and there is ample open water around this island that they can moor them up, they do not have to on inland waterways.

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Eddie says...
5:09pm Tue 26 Jan 10

i think prison ships are a great idea, put the nonce's on them the illegal immigrant convicts, the drug dealers and the other scums that destroy our way of life then take the ships outside territorial waters and let the navy have some target practice,
SIMPLES !!!!

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karen29 says...
9:44pm Tue 26 Jan 10

Eddie wrote:
i think prison ships are a great idea, put the nonce's on them the illegal immigrant convicts, the drug dealers and the other scums that destroy our way of life then take the ships outside territorial waters and let the navy have some target practice, SIMPLES !!!!
Load it full of MPs and wannabe MPs

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diggerdave says...
10:06pm Tue 26 Jan 10

strange comrade carl was quite when they wanted to put a prison in East Tilbury on the quiet as he was when labour wanted to put the prison ship in Tilbury until every kicked off.

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karen29 says...
11:07pm Tue 26 Jan 10

diggerdave wrote:
strange comrade carl was quite when they wanted to put a prison in East Tilbury on the quiet as he was when labour wanted to put the prison ship in Tilbury until every kicked off.
What prison at East Tilbury? News to me.

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PoorFleet says...
1:26am Thu 28 Jan 10

I'd rather a prison ship on the horizon than letting them roam about on the streets in front of me.

I'm pretty sure that'll be better for Thurrock than just early releasing the scum.

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donhonki says...
1:56pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Just cos u locked up,doesnt make u a criminal!

da **** uk justice system is world renoun 4 its **** mistakes!!

they've already tried to silence my controversial poetry!!

myspace.com/donhonki

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