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Rehabilitation of Prisoners

: The right hon. Gentleman reinforces my position. At present, the courts decide whether a person should be deported, and the sentencing practice of judges in such cases varies greatly from Crown court to Crown court. We should change the position, by statute if need be, so that there is a presumption that any foreign national whose offences in this country merit a prison sentence should be deported at the conclusion of that prison sentence. Bullingdon prison is in my constituency. It is a sizeable local prison for men and one reason why I wanted to take part in this debate is that I do not think that those who work in the Prison Service have their achievements trumpeted often enough. Being a prison officer or prison governor must be a tough job. Prison staff work with people who, by definition, do not want to be where they are. They must often deal with people who are vulnerable and who have a history of personality difficulties. Treating them with dignity and firmness must often be testing, particularly if prisons are overcrowded. Bullingdon prison makes every effort to try to help people to prepare themselves for the world outside. For example, it involves the St. Giles Trust, which has a contract to provide accommodation advice to prisoners. Interestingly, much of that advice is given by prisoners who have been trained to NVQ level 3 by the trust. It does its best to provide education and work opportunities. As Sue Saunders, the governor of Bullingdon prison, explained:"““Education is pivotal to prisoner resettlement and is provided throughout the””" prison"““both in the classroom and workplace. Through working closely with Milton Keynes College, we fulfil a provision for Basic and Key Skills and Wider Key Skills in the workplace. In addition Vocational Training is provided within all industrial areas across the prison. That currently equates to over 60 qualifications in a wide spectrum of subjects and areas of work. Where self-study in cells is identified as the most appropriate way for the individual to learn, the education contractor offers peripatetic learning where tutors support the student. In addition to this all prisoners have a minimum access of 20 minutes per week to the library.""Having moved away from providing ‘traditional' prison work, we are now focusing on providing qualifications to prisoners within our workshops. An example of this is the relocation of the Industrial Cleaning Workshop into the main prison, giving the workers a real life environment by providing cleaning services across the prison. This has been recognised by the Adult Learning Inspectorate who stated that this training provided real work experience in a way that would not normally be seen in a prison environment. In addition we also deliver in excess of 500 qualifications in this area.""In conjunction with colleagues from the Probation Service we now provide an access to work course: Transit. The aim of the course is to offer prisoners who are able and willing to find work, extra support and guidance to help them achieve their goals. This includes helping prisoners to understand the process of applying for work, writing CV's and completing application forms as well as helping with interview skills.””" The prison has"““secured the services of Job Centre Plus for three days a week, offering advice and guidance on employment issues as well as a job brokering service.””" Sue Saunders continued:"““On 4th October, Bullingdon held its second Job Fair. 12 Potential employers and over 150 prisoners who are approaching release attended this and the feedback from all . . . was very positive.””" As a consequence, a third job fair is planned for early next year. Bullingdon prison also runs a two-week debt management course every eight weeks that covers income and expenditure budgeting, how to read statements and payslips correctly, and the importance of saving and planning finances. Trading standards at Oxford county council runs a bespoke money management course at Bullingdon consisting of four two-hour sessions each on budgeting, banking, accounts and borrowing. That all seems excellent and well in support of what the Prison Service now has as part of its motto: unlocking potential and releasing success. It was not, therefore, surprising to me that Martin Narey, the chief executive of the National Offender Management Service, gave Bullingdon prison a glowing reference in his report, in which he said:"““There is some innovative and significant work taking place for the remand population. Rather than allowing remands to be marginalised—frequently inevitable in many””" local prisons—"““Bullingdon is giving some of them an opportunity to sort their lives out.””" Martin Narey thought that the multi-skills workshop at Bullingdon was ““first class”” and commented that it was"““unusual to meet so many prisoners so enthusiastic about the training they were receiving and the quality of work was extremely high. A significant number of prisoners have made very impressive progress to NVQ level 2 and 3 qualifications in printing and related skills. Significantly, a number of them had achieved category D status, but were very keen to stay at Bullingdon to continue their training.””" What he says after that, however, is the sting in the tail that causes me concern."““Regrettably, prison population pressures mean that it is unlikely that we will be able to keep them at Bullingdon. This is tragic. Bullingdon are developing offender management on the lines of the national offender management model and are well placed to operate successfully in a commissioning environment. And not for the first time, I thought the work being done by RAPT to arrest drug abuse, was outstanding.””" It is sad that the work of a local prison where, by every standard, the governor and the prison staff are doing excellent work in terms of advice on housing, rehabilitative training and getting people back into the world of work within the available resources is undermined by a combination of overcrowding and prisoners being all too frequently moved around the prison system. That is genuinely tragic. Martin Narey concluded his report with comments, which should be trumpeted, about the governor and staff at Bullingdon prison, praising"““the consistent enthusiasm of every member of staff I met and the frequent evidence of prisoners being treated with dignity.””" I have a footnote on that. I frequently find myself to the left of the Labour party, which is an increasingly uncomfortable position. Martin Narey argued two years ago for Bullingdon to remain in the public sector, and it has. I believe that prisons should be in the public sector, for that reason. My experiences with the proposed accommodation for asylum seekers at Bicester was searing, for whenever I sought information from the Home Office about what was being proposed, I was told that it was commercial in confidence. I emphasise that, because last time I said it, the Hansard reporter recorded it as ““commercial incompetence””. One of the institutions that should be most transparent in its activity and delivery in our society is a prison. We should know what is happening in prisons in terms of the inputs and their outcomes. I have yet to be persuaded that handing institutions such as prisons over to Group 4 Securicor enhances the rehabilitative process of Her Majesty's prisons. However, that is just a parenthesis. There is no necessary consequence that private is good and public is bad. I believe that those who work in the public sector in prisons do a good job. The thrust of my submission to the House this afternoon is simple. The best way to get the prison population down is to stop reoffending. If those in prison ceased to reoffend, our prison population would drop considerably. If consistent efforts were made at rehabilitation and ensuring that those who left prison had a better chance of accommodation, employment and life skills, the likelihood of their reoffending would drop and thus, the probability of our prison system being overcrowded would be reduced. Although Ministers do not have it entirely in their gift to control the total prison population, the Prison Service could certainly make greater efforts to ensure that people, whether men or women, do not spend the whole of their prison experience being shunted around from one prison to another. Each prisoner should be treated as an individual. The Home Office and the Prison Service should take pride in ensuring that people leave prisons with the best possible skills and qualifications in order to tackle the rest of their lives crime free and in society with the rest of us.