BRAVE NEW WORLD

"The new generation of titan "super prisons" are being designed to be overcrowded from the start, the Justice Ministry admitted yesterday. Prison service officials are already looking for a minimum 50-acre Brownfield site in the Greater London area to build the first titan jail. But when it opens in 2012 it will only have 2,100 places for its 2,500 inmates. A consultation paper published by the justice secretary, Jack Straw, said yesterday the sites for the four- or five-storey titans should be suitable for an initial development providing at least 2,100 un-crowded places with the capacity to hold up to 2,500 prisoners "through planned overcrowding". (Guardian, 6 June) RD