Collins' container cell plan slammed

Plans to put prisoners to work building their own cells out of shipping containers have been labelled "nonsense" and a waste of money.

Corrections Minister Judith Collins has floated the plan, suggesting it as a cheap answer to the cost of accommodating a bulging prison population.

But at a cost of $380,000 a bed, the shipping container plan is being labelled an expensive joke.

Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove said shipping containers would be only a short-term solution so taxpayers would have to pay twice when the Government was forced to build more permanent accommodation, which on today's dollars cost $643,000 a bed. That would push the total cost up to about $1million a bed.

And the suggestion that prisoners do the work themselves was nonsense. "You need electricity and a latrine so plumbers, sparkies, drainlayers and carpenters are involved.

"How many P addicts, gang members and murderers are qualified in those skills?"

Ms Collins said the plan would give prisoners useful construction skills.

But Mr Cosgrove said there were plenty of others more deserving of the work. There had been 2800 apprentices laid off so far because of the recession.

It was also questionable whether Corrections would want prisoners wielding blowtorches to do the work.

"This is just arrant nonsense. It treats the New Zealand public as if they're fools."

The prison population is forecast to rise to 10,700 by 2016, compared with a prison muster of fewer than 6000 in 2003. There are about 8000 prisoners currently.

The Corrections Department predicts that it will run out of prison beds by next year.

- © Fairfax NZ News