The governor of Latchmere House prison has submitted plans to take on extra prisoners.

According to the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) annual report, the open prison in Ham has “considerable waste space” in the compound which could be used to house more criminals.

Ann Sandall, IMB chairwoman, said: “Latchmere House’s governor said it would be possible to take 20 extra prisoners, the effect being the more you have the more staff and the easier to delegate jobs that can be done.

“Nothing has happened so far about this as the national offenders management service is still considering it.

“Latchmere House does have a lot of space landwise which could be used to build a whole new block – it could double in size and a much more modern, streamline facility could be built.”

She added that if the open prison, which currently has the capacity to house 207 inmates, were to get the go-ahead for the plan it would be important to keep their strict selection process and continue to limit it to category D (the lowest category) prisoners only. These inmates are allowed out of prison during the day to work.

The open prison, in Church Road, rehabilitates male prisoners approaching the end of their sentences, and who are resettling within the M25, letting them out to work on a daily basis.

And despite being “frequently under pressure” to take category C prisoners, the facility has always maintained it would not be able to look after them properly and restricted its inmates to those who are reasonably trusted not to try to escape.

The report also showed Latchmere House had finally been successful in signing contracts to get in-cell electricity for inmates.

Previous reports have commented on the inmates’ lack of power in their cells but the independent report said the long overdue work to bring the prison into the 21st century was already under way.

Ms Sandall said: “The work is going ahead now – they [the inmates] just had an electric light before but had no power so could not have a TV or listen to a radio unless it was one that had to run off a battery.

“If they wanted to do ironing they had to go out into the corridor, and when they were locked up at night they were very much on their own.

“They used to use batteries for TVs before but they didn’t last very long, but now they will be able to plug in a TV or radio and have at least one other power socket.

“Most prisons have got this and its been a long wait for Latchmere – but it’s very good it’s actually happening.”