GAOLS FOR HOUSES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 10

GAOLS FOR HOUSES

THE CRY FOR DWELLINGS. Anxious to provide mure dwellings the London County Council is casting envious eyes upon the huge sites occupied by London’s half-tenanted prisons. In these circumstances it would nut be surprising, says a London newspaper, if Holloway, Bentonville, and Brixton gaols were acquired at a comparatively early date. Conferences between the Home Office and the Prison Commissioners have resulted in the discovery that England has more prisons than it needs. In the provinces several local prisons have been demolished and the sites used for model villages. Local authorities in the metropolitan area, too, have a definite view that the existence of big prisons in thickly populated areas such as Holloway and Brixton has a detrimental effect upon the young people in the locality. Aleanwhile, Londoners are crying aloud for houses, and the sites of the unused or unwanted prisons in the metropolitan area would provide thousands with homes. The force of this argument is giving the Home Secretary an anxious time, and it is understood that some of the London prisons will soon be on offer at a price which will bring the schemes of the London County Council within the realm of practical politics. One prison outside the metropolis could undertake the “responsibilities” of at least three of the existing prisons in London. If the new scheme is carried through London will be left with two prisons—Wormwood Scrubs and Wandsworth.