Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 13 January 2016 to Question 20908, on prisons: discipline, for what reasons the listed additional days were added.

Andrew Selous

The table attached shows the numbers of awards of additional days in each prison establishment as a result of adjudications in each year since 2010, setting out the numbers in the main categories of breach of prison discipline.

Violence in prison has increased in recent years. The nature of offenders currently in custody and the widespread availability of new psychoactive substances have both contributed to making prisons less safe. There is no single, simple solution to improving safety in prisons but we are making progress.

We are trialling the use of body worn cameras and training sniffer dogs to detect New Psychoactive Substances. We have made it an offence to smuggle New Psychoactive Substance into prison, but ultimately the only way to reduce violence in prisons is to give governors and those who work in prisons the tools necessary to more effectively reform and rehabilitate offenders.