A network of resettlement prisons has been unveiled by the Justice Secretary in a bid to help inmates rehabilitate in the community where they are released.

The introduction of 70 resettlement prisons across England and Wales - including HMP Highpoint and Hollesley Bay - will see the majority of offenders released from jail in, or close to, the area in which they will live.

Chris Grayling said: “Rehabilitation in the community must begin behind the prison walls and follow offenders out through the gates if we are to stand a chance of freeing them from a life of crime.”

Existing prisons up and down the country will function as resettlement prisons with a trial starting in north-western England in the autumn.

The Justice Secretary plans to build a £250 million super-prison in North Wales, while he announced a raft of prison closures covering some 2,600 inmate places in January.