Response to Government prisons announcement - Lord Falconer
Lord Falconer, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, responding to the announcement that the Government is to build nine new prisons, said:
“Too many of our prisons are not fit for purpose so we support modernising the estate and we will look at the details of these proposals.
“But we have heard similar promises before and the Coalition Government ended up selling high performing prisons and increasing pressure on an already over-crowded system. It is key that the Government focus on performance as well as real estate value and we will look closely at the criteria being used.
"The right conditions also need to be in place to allow prisoners to be rehabilitated. Nick Hardwick’s latest report found prisons in their worst state for ten years, with persistent overcrowding and rising violence, so the Government must also address the immediate crisis in our prisons.
"People will rightly be sceptical of George Osborne and Michael Gove’s warm words when the last government promised us a rehabilitation revolution, which, in the words of the Chief Inspector of Prisons, we are ‘still waiting for.”
(via labourpress)
