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Rehabilitation of Prisoners

I am pleased that we have this opportunity to debate the report on the rehabilitation of prisoners, and I, too, commend my right hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr. Denham), the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, for his hard work in conducting the inquiry. Recommendation 122 of the report summarised the changes needed to improve the prospects for rehabilitating prisoners. In order of priority, they are: ““(i) a major drive to provide work and work-like regimes and training within prisons; (ii) an extension of this provision and other rehabilitative interventions to short-term and remand prisoners; (iii) significant improvements to drug and alcohol treatment; (iv) independent inspection of mental health provision; and (v) specific provision to address the needs of minority and vulnerable groups.”” One of the main conclusions of the Committee is that the overcrowding in our prison system has a hugely damaging impact on the delivery of rehabilitative regimes across the prison estate. Overcrowding means that it is less likely that prisoners will be held in prisons close to their home, and that will restrict contact with family and friends, as well as making it harder to have a coherent pre-release strategy. Overcrowding means that it is less likely that prisoners will be engaged in purposeful activity, as other hon. Members have mentioned. The Government acknowledged in their response to the report that the Prison Service has regularly missed the target for purposeful activity in recent years. Overcrowding also produces a so-called churn in the system, whereby prisoners are moved at short notice to other establishments, thereby interrupting the work that has been done with those prisoners. Having said that, I agree with my right hon. Friend that we can consider how to improve matters in spite of overcrowding. Conclusion 5 of our report says:"““We are critical of the management of transfers of prisoners across the prison estate which appears to be more ad hoc and pragmatic than strategic in design. The very high levels of transfers have a direct and significant negative impact on rehabilitation measures, both through disruption caused to intervention programmes and failure to provide prisoners with the particular interventions they need, as identified through assessment and sentence planning.””" We were impressed by the way in which transfers take place in Germany. Where the prison system is based on the federal system, prisoners are transferred back to their home region when they are convicted. It brings all the advantages that would benefit the rehabilitation of prisoners in this country, such as reducing transfers during sentence, allowing prisoners to retain links with families and enabling sentence and rehabilitation planning, including settlement on release. The Committee's report stressed the need for real work opportunities in prisons, as others have mentioned. In conclusion 29, we stated:"““We endorse the conclusion of the Prison Industries Review that:""‘Industrial workshops are one of the best means, within prison walls, to reflect real working life. A proportion of the prison population will never have been exposed to real work before, and this may be their first opportunity to gain some transferable employment skills. In order to advance the resettlement agenda prison work needs to be targeted at those who are least likely to want to work. These individuals should be allocated for work, particularly on work initially that requires little training. They should not be ignored if they are difficult, or lack motivation. They should be the target audience of industries, and will benefit most from prison work. They have the potential for most return in terms of reduced re-offending on release.'””" As my right hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen said, we were impressed by what we saw on our visits to Her Majesty's prison Coldingley, where prisoners can obtain transferable qualifications and skills and gain experience in a real working environment. I was pleased to read in the Government's response to the Committee's report that the prison has now adapted its regime to allow part-time working, with time given to other rehabilitative activities, including education. The report recommends that the Coldingley system be used as a model for other prisons, as well as expanded to cover prisoners who are reluctant to take on prison work. Members of the Committee were impressed also by the collaboration with private companies such as Transco, bringing skills training into prisons and young offenders' institutions. The scheme not only makes the rehabilitation of those serving custodial sentences more possible, but it can address the skills shortage in many places. Besides the development of more work opportunities, the Committee also felt that there should be pilot schemes that pay prisoners more realistic wages. The schemes should not make the prisoners better off while in prison, but give them the experience of paying tax and living costs, and thus better prepare them for life outside prison. More realistic wage levels could help to address the concerns of some private businesses that prisons can undercut the prices at which businesses produce goods. One major cause of criminal activity is drug addiction, and I am pleased that the amount of Government money made available to offer treatment to those in our communities who wish to get off drugs has increased dramatically in recent years. However, the majority of prisoners have drug and alcohol problems, and they should be addressed. That applies to short-term prisoners as well as those serving long sentences. In conclusion 75, the Committee stated:"““We recommend that every prisoner should receive health care screening, including mandatory drug testing, on admission to prison””." Although the Government did not accept mandatory drug tests for all prisoners, their response to the Committee's report provided the reassurance that screening procedures on admission shall identify drug misusers. I welcome that, and I am also pleased by the Government's statement that following a pilot in 2004, a drug rehabilitation programme for short-term prisoners specifically is being introduced. Progress is being made. The OASys model enables better information about prisoners to be transferred with them between establishments and when they leave prison. Will the Minister confirm whether the roll-out of connectivity between the Prison Service and the probation service is now complete? One of my main concerns, which is highlighted in the Committee's report, is the increase in the number of women prisoners and the even greater isolation they can have from their families. Although it is true that only 6.1 per cent. of the prison population are women, the annual average number of women prisoners has increased by a massive 173 per cent. since 1992, compared with a 50 per cent. increase in the number of male prisoners during that period. In the 10 years from 1994, the average number of women in prison in England and Wales rose from 1,811 to 4,487. Most of the women prisoners are mothers and primary carers, so many children are affected by the absence of their mother. More than 30 per cent. of women prisoners have suffered sexual abuse. The majority of women prisoners are in prison for non-violent offences and are therefore not a danger to others.