Safety in Custody and Violence in Prisons Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Justice
Yasmin Qureshi
Main Page: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)Department Debates - View all Yasmin Qureshi's debates with the Ministry of Justice
Safety in Custody and Violence in Prisons
Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts(7 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Andrew Selous
HMP Wormwood Scrubs is an older, Victorian prison facing various challenges. I went around it recently, and as I said, I have confidence in its very good new governor. The hon. Lady mentioned mobile phones, which we have not talked about much so far. As the Prime Minister announced on 8 February, we are committed to working with the mobile network operators, which also need to rise to their responsibilities to help us fight the scourge of mobile phones in prisons.
Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)
In the last four years, there has been a rise in levels of violence against prison officers owing to understaffing and the fact that there are not enough rehabilitation programmes. Is it not time to re-evaluate how we decide who to send to prison and, when we do send them to prison, to make available proper rehabilitation provision?
Andrew Selous
Decisions about who goes to prison are obviously for our independent judiciary, but the hon. Lady is absolutely right about the need for better rehabilitation. We are determined that time in prison is not wasted but is productive, relevant and beneficial to prisoners and to the wider community in terms of keeping us all safe when they come out.