The Ministry of Justice has announced they plan to spend £2.5bn on 4 new prisons, in order to kickstart local economies. This money could be better spent elsewhere, such as funding for youth clubs, schools and community centres which could help people avoid going to prison in the first place.
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The £2.5bn could be better spent elsewhere instead of in prison complexes. The fact that this was announced during a pandemic where thousands of people have lost their jobs just shows how out of touch this new initiative is with the needs of the public, and the UK is becoming dangerously close to the prison model of the US where prisons are big money. We need to invest in communities rather than in prisons, so people don't end up in prison in the first place,