Thornton Hall to be replaced by ‘similarly’ large jail

THE aborted super-prison at Thornton Hall will be replaced by a “similarly” large complex, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has said.

He said the new facility would be of “similar size, similar capacity” to Thornton, which could have housed 2,200 inmates.

This scotched earlier indications that the new complex might be scaled down, but Mr Ahern did say it might be built in “stages”.