Prisons: Finance

(asked on 14th January 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what criteria his Department used to select the prisons included in the 10 Prison Programme.


Answered by
 Portrait
Rory Stewart
This question was answered on 22nd January 2019

When establishing the 10 Prisons Project, we identified a group that were representative of the range of challenges currently facing the estate, including drugs, violence, and building issues. We focused on a small number of regions - London, Yorkshire and the North Midlands - to facilitate partnership working within the project and to limit any potential displacement whereby controlling drugs in one prison would simply move the problem to a neighbouring prison. We identified prisons in both urban and rural areas, with cohorts of young adult or adult male offenders, that are facing some of the most significant challenges across the estate. While all prisons were considered for the project, we included those that gave the best balance of these criteria.

  • All the prisons selected have three times more assaults now than in 2012;
  • Eight of them have regularly had higher numbers of assaults than similar prisons through the first half of the year;
  • Five of them are among the worst for positive drug tests for psychoactive substances;
  • One has received an Urgent Notification from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons;
  • Two are in special measures;
  • Four are over a hundred years old; and
  • Three received the lowest mark possible for safety in their latest Inspection reports.
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