Jersey has shelved plans to transfer prisoners to Guernsey to help ease pressure when its own prison is full or near capacity.
In 2019, Jersey’s Home Affairs Department began working on updating the island’s laws to allow inter-island prisoner transfers, which was due to be completed by the end of that year.
Moving inmates between the islands for administrative purposes and to help ease populations at both La Moye prison in Jersey and Les Nicolles in Guernsey was an idea first mooted by Guernsey’s then Home Affairs President Mary Lowe in 2018.
Guernsey’s then Prison Governor Dave Matthews confirmed that Jersey was working on a new law, but added that there was already some legislation in place that allowed for the transfer of prisoners to the UK, Jersey, or the Isle of Man under special circumstances.
Providing an update on the plans this week, a spokesperson for Jersey’s Justice and Home Affairs Department said: “There are currently no legal arrangements in place to allow the direct transfer of prisoners between the Channel Islands. New legislation would be required to enable such transfers.
“In the past, preliminary discussions about introducing inter-island transfer legislation have taken place.
“At present, if a request for transfer between the islands is received and the individual meets the necessary criteria, the transfer can be facilitated through England. However, there has been very low demand for such transfers, with only one recent request that did not meet the criteria.
“This indicates that direct transfer arrangements are not currently a critical area of work for the States of Jersey Prison Service.”
Guernsey’s prison has had an average population of over 90 inmates for the past two months.
The latest data, for the week ending 24 October, showed Les Nicolles was housing 87 male and six female inmates. Seven of the male prisoners were on youth detention sentences.
Of the 93 total population last week, 69 had been convicted of a crime and 24 were being held on remand.
Les Nicolles Prison has space for 134 inmates at maximum capacity.
La Moye Prison has a maximum capacity of 200 inmates.
Last year it had an average population of 155.