The Case for Nightingale Prisons: Public Safety Can’t Wait

Co-founder of Whole Nation Conservatives Igraine Gray is a Conservative activist and former council candidate, writer, published author and rehabilitated rough sleeper. Prior to the 2024 General Election she was Policy Assistant to Sir Simon Clarke.

We are, once again, in a situation where pragmatism must trump piety. The criminal justice system in this country, like so many of our vital institutions, is under acute strain. Our prisons are full. Overfull. With additional capacity not due to come into play until 2031, we need a temporary solution. And the Government, in a move that has raised more than a few eyebrows in the ranks of the constabulary and intelligence services, is proposing the early release of inmates. Including, potentially, serious offenders. This is not reform. It is risk (1,2).

Let’s be blunt. The release of prisoners not because they have reformed, repented, or been judged fit for return to society, but simply because there is no room at the inn, is an abdication of responsibility. It sends a message that the justice system is reactive, not rigorous; a sponge, not a spine.

So what is the responsible course, for any government serious about order, decency and the rule of law?

We must build. But building takes time. The promised 14,000 new prison places are welcome, necessary, and overdue, but they will not be here until the end of the decade (3). In the meantime, we need an answer that is immediate, effective and morally defensible.

That answer is Nightingale prisons.

During the pandemic, when our NHS teetered on the brink of being overwhelmed, we responded not by giving up, but by scaling up. In record time, temporary Nightingale hospitals were erected, political will rising to meet the moment. We did the same for the courts system. We can, and must, do the same for our prisons.

Nightingale prisons would be modular, temporary custodial facilities, housed in repurposed public buildings or constructed rapidly on state-owned land. Their purpose is simple: to take pressure off an overcrowded estate without surrendering our standards of justice or our commitment to public safety.

This is not a plea for some penal dystopia of corrugated iron and concertina wire. It is a call for intelligent, humane improvisation in the face of an immediate challenge. For a party that has always prided itself on adaptation over revolution, this should be instinctive.

The prison population in England and Wales has been rising by approximately 4,500 each year (3). New capacity, regrettably, is not keeping pace. Even with early release schemes, already stretched to the point of absurdity, the Ministry of Justice projects we’ll run out of room again by 2026 (4). Police and intelligence chiefs are rightly warning that a rush to release inmates early, or a blind reliance on electronic tagging, will compromise public safety and flood local forces with new burdens (2).

We cannot allow our prisons policy to be dictated by the tyranny of the spreadsheet. The justice system must protect the innocent, punish the guilty, and rehabilitate the willing - not serve as a pressure valve for Whitehall’s logistical errors.

The creation of Nightingale prisons satisfies not just necessity, but conservative principles.

First, they protect the public. Our primary duty. Second, they uphold the integrity of sentencing by ensuring that justice is seen to be done, not circumvented. Third, they embody fiscal responsibility. Repurposing existing sites and using modular builds is far cheaper than paying the social and financial cost of criminal recidivism enabled by premature release. And fourth, they offer a humane environment more conducive to rehabilitation than the Dickensian overcrowding currently endured by many inmates.

In short, they offer time and space. Time to build permanent capacity. Space to restore order.

Government must now act. Emergency funding should be allocated to identify suitable sites: military bases, mothballed hospitals, empty schools. Security contractors must be engaged. Legislative changes, where necessary, must be expedited. And we must be unflinching in defending the principle that punishment should never be curtailed by convenience.

It is a sad irony that in our efforts to deliver justice swiftly during the pandemic, we were able to expand court capacity overnight, but when it comes to housing the consequences of those very trials, we demur. That contradiction must be resolved.

Conservatism at its best is not a philosophy of inertia, but of stewardship. We do not tear down for the sake of utopia, nor do we tolerate decay out of deference to precedent. We govern, or we go. And to govern is to decide.

The decision now is clear. We either uphold our criminal justice system with courage and creativity, or we acquiesce to a quiet erosion of its authority, under the guise of administrative necessity.

Nightingale prisons are not a silver bullet. But they are a tool we cannot afford to ignore. If we believe in justice, and we must, then we must give it room to breathe.

References

1. Early prison releases risk public safety, police warn (thetimes.com)

2. UK politics: minister defends Labour’s justice record after warnings of threat to public safety – as it happened | Politics | The Guardian

3. How many prisoners are being released early and who are they? - BBC News

4. Prisons crisis: As justice system faces total gridlock in 2026, PAC calls for rapid action - Committees - UK Parliament