My first thought after reading that is, someone should be tasked with drastically cutting those £££ figures asap.
£40k per year to keep someone in prison ? If true, its madness. It should cost a fraction of that. For a start, give them the same food as is served to patients in NHS hospitals, that should save quite a few quid.

It is actually relatively easy to come to a figure even higher, take a prison wing with 50 inmates, would probably need a staff of three full time warders, working 8 hour shifts that means 12 staff per day without any holidays/sick days .. to cover them you need another 3 .. so to run that wing over the year 15 staff. And that's with the inmates locked up 24/7, include rehabilitation, exercise, visiting supervision and you treble that to 45 staff. On around £20,000 that makes £900,000. They will require admin staff to process their pay etc etc .. at least 2 on £15,000 (£930,000), medical staff as cover, 2 at £20,000 (£970,000), A supervisor per shift on £30,000 = £120,000 (£1,09,000) Prison Governor on £80,000 (£1,170,000). They will all need feeding so cooks, servers?? 10 on £15000 ? £150,000 (£1,320,000) , cleaners ?? 5 x £15,000 ? £75,000 (£1,395,000). Prison chaplains? 3 at £28,000 is £84,000 (£1,479,000). Plumbers/painters/electricians/etc etc to maintain the building ?? 5 at £30,000 ? £150,000 (£1,629,000). and that is JUST a guess on salaries .. That leaves less than £400,000 a year to cover .. water, electricity, heating, food, medicines, cleaning materials, transport, fuel, maintenance, uniforms, clothing etc etc etc ...
However you slice it .. locking people up is NOT cheap....
