Early Release of Prisoners
Debate between Catherine Atkinson and Jess Brown-Fuller(3 weeks, 2 days ago)
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Catherine Atkinson
I have listened very carefully to this debate. I will always listen to victims, but I want to ensure that I can look them in the eyes and know that when offenders are convicted and sentenced to custody, there are prison cells for them. That is where we were left by the last Government in real difficulty.
Jess Brown-Fuller
I seek clarification. The Minister said that the Government have added grooming as an aggravating factor. Will every person sentenced to an offence related to grooming gang scandals now get an extended determinate sentence because the aggravating factor will be added, or will they still be eligible for standard determinate sentences?
Catherine Atkinson
It adds to the seriousness of the offence—it is considered an aggravating feature when it comes to sentencing. Obviously, sentences are determined by judges, as is absolutely right, to ensure that we maintain the rule of law. However, grooming is an aggravating aspect, as opposed to binding the final sentence that a judge gives. There will always be mitigating and aggravating considerations for the judge, and grooming has been made a clear aggravating feature. However, I would be happy to meet the hon. Lady to discuss this point if she would find that useful.
The Conservatives added just 482 prison places during their time in office, or 34 per year. If they had not closed 23 prisons, such as HMP Holloway, we would not be where we are now—if that prison had not been sold off to build flats, we would have more capacity. In comparison, the previous Labour Government added 27,830 places to prison capacity, and this Labour Government are embarking on the largest prison-building programme since the Victorian era. We have already delivered over 3,000 places.
Jess Brown-Fuller
I do not expect the Minister to know the answer to this question, but I would appreciate it if after the debate she could update the House on what progress has been made on HMP Dartmoor. It was closed in 2024, and it has been suggested that it will be closed for three years. That could open up capacity of an additional 400 spaces without needing to build a new prison.
Catherine Atkinson
I will ensure that the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Jake Richards), writes to the hon. Lady.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Catherine Atkinson and Jess Brown-Fuller(5 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)
Catherine Atkinson (Derby North) (Lab)
Work for Serving Prisoners
Debate between Catherine Atkinson and Jess Brown-Fuller(9 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Catherine Atkinson
That is another fantastic initiative. I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. Impressively, some of the partner agents and partner charities working with the RFA have achieved reoffending rates of under 5%.
I was told at HMP Ranby that the most popular work with prisoners was for the rail industry, though sometimes a prison struggles to find long-term rail-related work for prisoners. The RFA is working to help address that. That is particularly important in a sector such as rail, which really needs more skilled workers and is anticipated to lose 90,000 workers by 2030.
The RFA has a tracking system that allows it to see how prisoners and placements progress. The Prison Reform Trust reports that, for years, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service
“has not published figures on the number of prisoners working in custody, due to the disruption to data quality.”
We need more data and we need it to be tracked.
Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)
The hon. Member makes an important point about data. A colleague of mine said that when they visited a prison they asked what the reoffending rates were and the governor could not answer because reoffending rates were not being tracked. Does she agree that if prisons had an incentive to watch their reoffending rates, they would be more keen to make sure that the rehabilitation programmes made a difference and that they were not seeing the same faces time and again?
Catherine Atkinson
The hon. Lady makes an important point. That is one of the reasons that the RFA has created its tracking system: to have tangible evidence of the efficacy of the work that we intuitively know must be successful in preventing reoffending.
The businesses that I have met that are utilising release on temporary licence schemes or have workshops in prisons often act from a really strong ethic and a strong sense of social responsibility. There are also economic benefits and evidence—a clear business case—for providing work in prisons. I thank the East Midlands Chamber for its work with businesses in this area. I was told by their chief executive, Scott Knowles, that
“those employers that can successfully navigate the administrative burden to employ prisoners or offer placements on temporary licence, frequently comment that these members of the team rapidly become their most productive team members.”
A lot of the work taking place in prison is not for the private sector at all. Some 90% of the work at HMP Ranby is for the public sector, in a range of things including building beds, lockers and furniture for use not just in other prisons but in the wider public sector. That means that it does not have to be bought in, providing significant savings to the public purse as a result.
The success of schemes such as those that have been mentioned and those at HMP Ranby raises an important question: how can we scale up the model across more prisons and employers? The goal should be to reach a point where, upon release, prisoners can return to their communities anywhere in the country and find employment that builds on the skills that were developed inside.