Prisons: Females

(asked on 4th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the 2017 review by Lord Farmer entitled Importance of strengthening prisoners' family ties to prevent reoffending and reduce intergenerational crime, whether there are any women’s prisons that do not have in-cell telephones.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 13th May 2020

The 2017 Lord Farmer review, and his further Review for Women (2019) identified a series of recommendations on how to support both men and women in prison to engage with their families and the impact this can have in reducing reoffending and assisting in addressing the intergenerational transmission of crime.

In line with Lord Farmer’s recommendations, we will aim to prioritise women, the youth estate and vulnerable prisoners where possible with regard to the implementation of technology across the prison estate.

Currently all female prisons with the exception of four (Downview, Send, Low Newton and Drake Hall) have in-cell telephones. It is planned that these remaining four prisons will have received the technology within the next 6-8 months. We are working closely with third parties to identify whether the impact of Covid-19 will impact our proposed timing.

In recognition of the importance of continued contact with family and to ensure stability in our jails, in the current state of pandemic, the Government has moved quickly to keep prisoners in touch with their family members by the introduction of 900 secure mobile PIN phones for those prisons which do not already have in-cell telephony. These are in addition to, but operate in the same way, as wing PIN phones which remain in use.

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