Petition Put offenders to work

I think that with the large amount of offenders out there and little room in prisons, and the UK economy faltering, criminals/offenders should be put to work. By that I mean they should be helping the UK industry. This country is full of sites in need of development and I believe factories could be opened there and criminals could be made manufacture simple goods in high demand, for free. It's almost forced labour but it will benefit the UK and put people off reoffending more than soft prison sentences. Before rejecting this as nonsense, take a minute to think about how this would help the UK - free labour, skills that may be useful when they are released would be learned and goods will be made to be sold for money that could go towards paying off national debt. The factories could be built on derelict land with housing/prisons for the criminals next to it. In short, I believe criminals should be made work unpaid producing goods to boost the UK economy.