PRISONS MINISTER ESCAPES

Commenting to-day on the announcement that Hilary Benn is leaving after just under a year in post as Minister for Prisons and Probation to be replaced by Paul Goggins, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:
                                       
“Government security is so lax that six Ministers have escaped from prison in six years. This lack of stability and consistency is breathtakingly irresponsible. It mirrors precisely the chaotic level of change within the Prison Service. A parliamentary question in February revealed that, of 138 prisons, 44 had had four or more Governors in charge in the space of five years. Meanwhile, in a system referred to as ‘the churn’ by government officials, every day hundreds of prisoners are being moved from one overcrowded prison to another to create bed space for those arriving from the courts. Prisons are in an unholy mess. The criminal justice system itself needs radical reform and rebalancing. Hilary Benn was starting to come to grips with it, we very much hope that Paul Goggins is able to stay long enough to effect real change. Making prison a place of last resort must be his first priority.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. On May 9th 2003 the prison population in England and Wales stood at 73,012.
2. The UK has the highest imprisonment rate in the European Union at 139 per 100,000.
3. The number of prisoners in England and Wales has increased by over 25,000 in the last ten years.  In 1993, the average prison population was 44,566.  When Labour came to Government in May 1997 the prison population was 60,131.  This continued to increase, and stood at 66,105 when David Blunkett became Home Secretary on 8 June 2001.
4. The number of women in prison has more than trebled in ten years. In 1993 the average female prison population was 1,560.  Five years ago in 1997 it stood at 2,680.  On 25 April there were 4,454 women in prison.
5. This year prison overcrowding has been at its highest recorded level. In April 2003 90 out of the 138 in England and Wales were officially overcrowded.
6. In 2002 there were 94 suicides in prisons in England and Wales. This is a rise of 29 per cent on the previous year’s total of 73. The dramatic rise in suicides is linked to overcrowding.
7. Recent Home Office projections predict a prison population of anything between 91,400 and 109,600 by 2009. This means the prison system will be under even more pressure, jeopardising the functioning of the entire criminal justice system.
8. Ministerial roll call: Hilary Benn was appointed on 29 May 2002. Previous Ministers were Beverley Hughes, Paul Boateng, Lord Williams and Joyce Quinn.