Transforming Rehabilitation

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Excerpts

Wednesday 9th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Phillips of Sudbury]

My Lords—

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My Lords, we have yet to hear from the Conservative Benches.

[Lord Faulks]

I welcome this Statement, particularly its focus on those with sentences of less than 12 months and its identification of that period of vulnerability as young offenders leave prison. One of the particular areas of vulnerability is those offenders who have a previous history of drug addiction who are then prone to taking large doses of drugs which can result in death. I therefore welcome the role of a mentor, although I recognise what the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, has said about the perception of custody plus because I was sitting as a recorder at the time. However, the role of a mentor seems to me to be potentially very important. Can the Minister help the House by identifying who exactly is going to perform this mentoring role and what its scope might be so as to assist in avoiding those traps that I have attempted to identify?