Feature: Prisons from era of Charles Dickens to go as Britain announces major reform program

A multi-million dollar project to close and replace Britain's old 19th century Dickensian prisons was announced Monday as part of a major reform program.

Chancellor George Osborne and Justice Secretary Michael Gove unveiled the reform program, which includes plans to build nine new prisons, ahead of a visit to Brixton prison, a Victorian detention center in South London.

A ministry of justice (MoJ) spokesman said in a statement: "The radical reforms will ensure Britain's prison system is fit for purpose in the twenty-first century, and the new prisons will allow the government to close old Victorian prisons in city centers."

The program will transfer 10,000 prisoners from outdated sites to the new prisons. The MoJ says this will save around 120 million U.S. dollars each year due to the reduced costs of modern facilities.

The closure of the old prisons, dating back to Victorian England, will allow over 3,000 new homes to be built, boosting house building in urban areas and providing thousands of working people with homes. The Victorian prison site at Reading will be the first to be sold.

Justice Secretary Gove called the ageing prisons ineffective, their facilities unfit for the modern world.

Chancellor Osborne said: "So many of our jails are relics from Victorian times on prime real estate in our inner cities. We are going to reform the infrastructure of our prison system, building new institutions which are modern, suitable and rehabilitative."

"This will save money, reform an outdated public service and create opportunity by boosting construction jobs and offering more people homes to buy."

Five of the new prisons will be open before the end of 2020, with the British government also completing a new prison at Wrexham in North Wales, and expanding existing prisons in Stocken and Rye Hill.

The hope is the new prisons will improve rehabilitation.

"Currently, half of criminals re-offend within one year of being released, and nearly half of all prisoners go to prison without any qualifications," added the MoJ spokesman.

"We will be able to design out the dark corners which too often facilitate violence and drug-taking. And we will be able to build a prison estate which allows prisoners to be rehabilitated, so they turn away from crime. It is only through better rehabilitation that we will reduce reoffending, cut crime and make our streets safer."

The first of the old prisons to close will be Reading, which opened in 1844. Other prisons set for closure have not yet been announced, but around the country there are numerous old lock-ups, including three in London, Brixton, Wormwood Scrubs and Pentonville.

Presently, just under 86,000 prisoners are serving sentences in British prisons. Endit