Ian Payne 4am - 7am
The REAL Reason The Government Won't Reduce Prison Population
13 February 2017, 11:26
James O'Brien explains the sinister reason that the government are refusing to reduce the prison population, despite the crisis currently engulfing the service.
Prisoner numbers have doubled, while budgets have remained the same. But James worked out why the government wants more people in jail - there's money in it for them.
Speaking on his LBC show, he said: "There's never any money in spending money on prisons? Making money from prisons is a very different proposition entirely.
|Pump them into the private sector, as we've seen with the NHS, companies start turning a profit on running a prison.
"What's the worst possible thing that could happen to that business model? Because I don't think Liz Truss will mention this later today. People are making money out of running prisons right. What's the worst possible thing that could happen to that business model?
"The worst possible thing that can happen to your business model is that the prison population is reduced.
"The Justice Secretary today will pledge not to reduce prison populations. And she'll dress it up in the usual way by saying these wicked, wicked people, these uber-meanies need to be locked up forever.
"What's the worst possible thing that can happen to your business model if you're in the business of privatising prisons? Boom."