It is reported that it costs £459 per night to keep a criminal in police cells rather than prison. Do you actually believe this non-fact?I am sure that it will have been calculated in the same ridiculous way used to 'prove' that it costs £2,000 per week to hold a criminal in prison.
[I have known JPs who have let this silly nonsense influence them when sentencing.]
How these absurd figures are arrived at is to take the entire prisons' budget and all ancillary costs then divide them by the number of prisoners. So technically, you arrive at a figure which may be 'correct' but is utterly misleading!
So sending Aggie Scraggs down for 6 months will NOT cost the exchequer an extra £24,000 and certainly not £48,000! {Allowing that she will be released automatically after 3 months, of course!} The amount is much closer to 'negligible' than £24k.
As for the Police opening an existing cell door, ushering somebody in and then giving them a supper and breakfast - well, what do you think? - About four quid?
Governments do NOT report any other costs in this manner. It is designed to turn people against the idea of locking anybody up on grounds of cost. Cunning!
