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Prisons: Carter Review

My Lords, I congratulate the Minister on conducting a review on the need to divert people with mental health problems away from the prisons. However, I ask him to think again about accepting the assertion in the Statement that, "““there is no doubt that the prison population will continue to rise over the next few years””." That is the core of the problem. On the Minister’s own definition of persistent and violent offending, less than one-third of those presently locked up need to be in prison. Most of the other two-thirds, some of whom I accept should be in prison, could properly be punished in the community. On the point about the staff, will the Minister pledge now to involve the Prison Officers’ Association in all of the changes foreseen in this Statement?