Today the Government announced the Prisons Strategy White Paper, setting out a plan for safer, more secure prisons that cut reoffending as we build back safer.
There is much to be welcomed in the White Paper, particularly in terms of cutting reoffending.
Prisons keep people safe by taking dangerous criminals off our streets, but they can only bring down crime and keep the public safer in the longer-term if they properly reform and rehabilitate offenders.
The Prisons Strategy White Paper sets out the Governments plan for providing prisoners with rehabilitative drug treatment, deliver increased prisoner education, support prisoners into jobs as they leave custody, and implement airport-style security to reduce the flow of illicit contraband in prisons.
However, as part of the drive to increase prison spaces, and our unhappy experience in Buckinghamshire with proposals for an inappropriately sited 1,400 capacity new prison adjacent to HMP Springhill and HMP Grendon, Greg challenged the Minister after her Statement to lock in that all new prisons must be built on brownfield and brownfield only land.
