Justice - Ninth Report
Prisons: planning and policies

Here you can browse the report together with the Proceedings of the Committee. The published report was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 4 March 2015.


Contents


Terms of Reference

Summary

1 Introduction

The previous work of the Committee

Terms of reference

Overview of the Government's prisons policies

Savings in the estate

Operational policies

Prison population projections

2 Modernising the prison estate

The costs and benefits of the new-for-old policy

Replacing old, structurally inefficient prisons

New prison building

New for old and prison performance

Overcrowding

Implications of overcrowding

Catering for different populations

Prison sizes

A one-size-fits-all prison estate?

Women

Future-proofing and the risk of over-securitisation

Prisons in Denmark

Working prisons, resettlement prisons and the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms

Working prisons

Integrating prison work with learning and skills

The compatibility of working prisons and resettlement prisons

Potential problems for development of resettlement prisons

3 Benchmarking and prison staffing

The rationale for benchmarking

The implementation of benchmarking

The impact of efficiency savings

The impact on prison performance

The impact on safety

Access to purposeful activity

Sentence progression and case management

Prisoner complaints

Explanatory factors for the deterioration in performance

Changes to regimes

Staff-prisoner relations

Staff levels and turnover

Reasons for staffing shortages

Assaults

Suicides

Drugs

Measures to deal with violence and disorder

NOMS' measures to manage and resolve the situation  

Action to resolve staffing problems

Responsiveness of NOMS to changing operational demands

4 Governance and accountability

Changes to operational policies

The Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme

Release on temporary licence

Roles and responsibilities of prison governors and prison officers

The changing role of prison governors

Consultation with governors

The changing role of prison staff

The contribution of prisoners

Prisoner complaints mechanisms

Independent scrutiny

Independent Monitoring Boards

Prisons and Probation Ombudsman

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons

5 Conclusion

Conclusions and recommendations

Formal Minutes

Witnesses

Published written evidence  

List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament


 
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Prepared 18 March 2015