KENT Conservative MP Damian Green has backed his party's pledge to create 5,000 additional prison places.

Mr Green, MP for Ashford and shadow minister for immigration, said: "We need more prison places both to stop early release of those who should be doing time, and to allow proper rehabilitation."

At Monday’s launch of a green paper, entitled Prison with a Purpose, Tory leader David Cameron stressed the need for "honesty in sentencing and a new generation of prisons."

He said Mr Cameron is right to identify prison reform as a key issue.

Mr Green said: "One of the big problems with the current system is that prisoners are moved around so often that the essential training they receive is disrupted.

"This means that too many prisoners are not properly equipped to deal with life on the outside, are not able to find a job and so become repeat offenders."

Other proposals outlined within the green paper include setting minimum and maximum sentences with no parole until the minimum term has been served and for offenders to compensate their victims through a Victims’ Fund.

For more information on the Prison with a Purpose green paper visit www.conservatives.com