15 OCTOBER 1965, Page 13

Sell up the London Jails?

SIR,—Mr. George Hutchinson wishes to realise some of the land now used by HM prisons in order to increase the supply of urban land in London avail- able for housing. As for the prisoners, they can be 'housed' elsewhere: 'most of the prisons could be re-established in the countryside, and sometimes on islands around the coast.'

A splendid opportunity would arise to spend the profit on building better prisons, but the whole exer- cise will hardly be possible unless some of the profit from the sale of some of the 275.5 acres at present taken up by prisons, etc., be used to increase the pay. and improve the conditions, of the warders. who otherwise will be most unwilling, I imagine. to volunteer en masse for service 'in the country- side.' let alone 'on islands around the coast.'

New College, Oxford