Prison Overcrowding Debate

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Department: Ministry of Justice

Prison Overcrowding

Dominic Raab Excerpts
Monday 16th June 2014

(9 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Chris Grayling Portrait Chris Grayling
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I cannot give an exact figure, but I can say that as we introduce resettlement prisons in the last part of this year, the vast majority of offenders—not absolutely all, but almost all offenders—will spend at least the last few months of their sentence in the geographic area into which they will be released, which will help with precisely the links the hon. Gentleman talks about.

Dominic Raab Portrait Mr Dominic Raab (Esher and Walton) (Con)
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Will the Justice Secretary confirm that there are more offenders in jail now than there were under the previous Government, and that crime is lower now than under the previous Government? Will he also confirm that there will be absolutely no repeat of the shambolic early release scheme, which saw 80,000 prisoners let out early, meaning that we had to prosecute hundreds of them, including for murder and other serious violent offences?

Chris Grayling Portrait Chris Grayling
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I completely agree. To be frank, I would like to have the capacity to unravel some of the residual schemes that I inherited, such as the home detention curfew scheme, which in my view should not have been introduced in the first place and which people struggle to understand. I will not be able to do that until resources are available, but it is certainly my ambition.