CAMPAIGNERS will find out today whether months of lobbying the Ministry of Justice over Dorset’s prisons will lead to a review.

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill said that he and all of Dorset’s MPs have been asking why prisoners from Dorset have to go to Exeter or further afield, whilst the county’s own two prisons – Portland and Guys Marsh – are being used to house prisoners from Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

Mr Underhill said the people of Dorset ‘will find it unbelievable that we have two prisons we can’t use.’

He said the way forward to reduce re-offending is engagement – helping former prisoners find work and assisting with things like CVs and training – ‘but all of that falls down if my closest prisons are Exeter or Channings Wood, which is a five hour return journey.’