The solution to Britain’s bursting jails is to construct more prisons with a “build them, fill them” programme, says Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner.

Matthew Scott says the system needs more capacity to deal with the number of charges being brought as a result of police arrests.

He spoke hours after the government announced “less serious offenders” will be released on probation early to relieve overcrowding in jails in England and Wales.

The current offender population is just 500 spaces short of its 88,782 capacity.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said his reforms could see jailing fewer low-level offenders and deporting foreign prisoners.

Mr Scott spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) after addressing the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel at County Hall, Maidstone, on Tuesday afternoon (Oct 17).

The prison population has increased by 8% in the past year and is projected to soar to 94,000 by March 2025, largely down to tougher sentences and court backlogs.

“At the moment we have got a situation where the police are bringing more charges to the courts and we have an issue with capacity...”

He told the LDRS: “I don’t think that reducing the prison population is going to solve our problems. I have been very clear in the past: build them, fill them.

“Fundamentally we do need more prison places. Of course, we need prison staff to fill them and we need meaningful rehabilitation inside them.

“At the moment we have got a situation where the police are bringing more charges to the courts and we have an issue with capacity.”

Mr Scott said he hopes government plans to expand the prison estate will happen “as soon as possible”.

This could include an expansion of Rochester Prison which has been earmarked for a number of years, said Mr Scott.

But Charlie Taylor, HM chief inspector of prisons, told the BBC there are already staffing pressures affecting Kent, Surrey and Sussex, including Rochester, Maidstone and Lewes prisons, along with Cookham Wood Young Offenders Institution in Rochester.

Mr Scott, who has been in post for seven years, said there are as many as four vacancies for crown court judges. There is also a shortage of legal advisers, who ensure the smooth running of the courts, and prison officers.

The shortfall of judges and legal advisers means that Kent’s two crown courts cannot run at full capacity, causing a backlog.

Mr Scott said: “We’ve been fortunate in the lobbying I have done with the government, they have been able to prioritise Kent as a place for judicial postings but we still need more judges.

“We see daily which courts are or are not open but I know our judges are doing the best they can with the resources they have to hear as many cases as they can but we need to fill those vacancies so the victims’ cases can be heard sooner.

"I'm not sure the building of more prisons would do public protection any good...”

“The legal adviser is a specialist role within the court service and they manage the court day-to-day and are vital to running the court service. The shortage of them means we cannot run as many courts even if we had the right number of judges.”

Legal advisers are leaving the court service to take up other roles in the criminal justice system or to move into other jobs for more money, said the commissioner.

Conservative Mr Scott added: “It is no less a demanding job than working in any other part of the court service.

“They can go and get jobs elsewhere for more money and we’re going to have to address the fact we keep going out to recruit for legal advisers.

“And if you keep on doing the same thing and getting the same results, why are we not changing? We’re going to have look at where we are advertising these roles, some better recruitment campaigns and we’re going have to look at the pay and conditions as well to retain what is a critical function.”

He conceded that the pandemic had a “disproportionate” effect on Kent due to the nature of its court estate.

Kent County Council’s Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Antony Hook, who represents Faversham, said Mr Scott’s answer was “far too simplistic.”

Cllr Hook, a criminal barrister, added: “I’m not sure the building of more prisons would do public protection any good.

“If we’re locking up people for longer, then we need to invest heavily in rehabilitation, particularly when prisoners, who are mostly men, are stuck in cells for 23 hours a day.

“Plus, prisons are very expensive to build and run. So a ‘build more prisons’ policy is not a very fiscally Conservative position.”

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Chalk said: “A short stretch of a few months inside isn’t enough time to rehabilitate criminals, but is more than enough to dislocate them from the family, work and home connections that keep them from crime.

“This is the wrong use of our prison system and taxpayers’ money. It doesn’t deliver for victims and it doesn’t cut crime.”