Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Dearing (Crossbench). It was answered on Monday, 14 January 2008.

Prisoners: Rehabilitation

Question: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply. My Question derived from the experience of a man who was convicted of murder at the age of about 20 and given a tariff of 15 years. He has now been in prison for 27 years, consistently denying the offence. I understand that the rehabilitation of such long-term prisoners is based very much on acceptance of their guilt. Does the Minister accept that rehabilitation needs to be aimed especially at those who, like the man I mentioned, deny their guilt? Secondly, does the Minister accept that, with more lifers in British prisons than in the whole of France, Germany, Russia and Turkey combined, the very high levels of recidivism among prisoners and the Government’s need to double their planned expenditure on prisons to £2.5 billion to accommodate an extra 10,000 prisoners, we have an urgent need to review the amount of money that we are spending on the successful rehabilitation of prisoners so that they become good citizens rather than stay in prisons?

Answer: My Lords, the noble Lord raises some profound questions about prison policy. The release of prisoners such as the ones he mentions is a matter for the Parole Board and is done on the basis of risk of harm. On access to programmes for people who deny their offence, some offender management programmes will not be suitable because they are concerned with discussions about the offence itself, but other educational and training programmes are available, and people who have denied their offence are regularly released by the Parole Board. On the noble Lord’s general question, we are due to debate that. The Government believe that they are on track, that they have the right programme and that prison is and should be available for the most serious offences but that community sentences should be used for other offenders.

Secondary information