Covid-19: Prisons and Offender Rehabilitation

Lord McFall of Alcluith Excerpts

Thursday 23rd April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord German, for giving us this opportunity—

[The Senior Deputy Speaker]

Could the noble Lord speak nearer the microphone, please?

[Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick]

I certainly will, as best I can. I refer to the letter sent to every prisoner by Phil Copple, director-general of prisons, at the beginning of the lockdown. It said that they needed to have forbearance, patience, self-control, restraint and tolerance. He assured them that the Prison Service would look after them with humanity and due dignity.

I made an inquiry of a number of people I know inside the Prison Service to ask how their experience was. I will quote just three. First, this is from a prisoner in Surrey:

“I have been treated poorly throughout the period of the lockdown. I have been provided with no updates as to what the lockdown means other than to remain in my cell until further notice. I have been provided with very limited telephone usage, limited sanitation and no means to cope with prolonged confinement e.g. education.”


This is from another prisoner in Kent:

“No communication or update whatsoever with what’s going on both in/outside of jail. Having 1 hot meal a day at lunchtime and getting a baguette … by 4pm … Basically being told to put up and shut up! I’ve not been seen by no member of healthcare concerning”


well-known mental health issues, skin allergies and other physical needs—no medical support of any nature.

This is a final one from a prisoner in Hampshire:

“People with mental health issues are being neglected and deteriorating because of long periods of confinement to cells with no regime.”


This is a massive failure of human dignity, abruptly disregarded. I urge the Minister to respond with dignity.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Senior Deputy Speaker]

Lord Balfe? If not, I call the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner of Worcester.

[Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Lab)]

My Lords, we have been told that life in Britain will be different once the Covid-19 emergency is over. I hope that one change will be in the approach that we adopt towards Britain’s prisons and the men and women who are held there.

The Prison Service has struggled to contain overcrowding for at least the last 50 years. Measures to reduce the prison population have been discussed continuously during that time. Governments have sometimes expressed themselves as being in favour, but far too little has been done to bring that about. The Crime, Justice and Protecting the Public White Paper in 1990, as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, will remember, described prisons as an,

“expensive way of making bad people worse.”

Noble Lords will rightly recoil from the idea of executive release to cancel the effect of a sentence lawfully imposed by the court. However, we now have a situation when a prison sentence carries with it a real risk to the life of a prisoner or of prison staff because of the conditions inside the jails, in half of which the coronavirus is present.

There has always been a time when prisoners have died in prison—for some time now, there have been over 300 prisoner deaths a year, a third of them by their own hand—but we have to go back to the time of the great 18th-century prison reformer John Howard, after whom the Howard League is named and who was referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, to find dangers similar to those that we have today because of Covid-19.

In preparing for this debate, I spoke to someone who works at Her Majesty’s Prison Hewell in Worcestershire, described last year by HMIP as “squalid, demeaning and depressing”. As far as spreading the coronavirus is concerned, he said that the prison was as dangerous as a cruise ship—worse in many ways, as the cells are smaller than a typical ship’s cabin.

As so many other countries have decided, and as many of your Lordships have said in this debate, the release of prisoners has now become a matter not just of compassion and humanity but of practical necessity to save lives.

[The Senior Deputy Speaker]

I call the noble Lord, Lord Balfe, who I believe has now unmuted his microphone.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Keen of Elie]

I will do so in about a minute, if I may.

The noble Lord, Lord Marks, asked about prisoners being outside cells. Clearly, we must maintain social distancing at present.

The noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, whom I welcome to his new position on the Opposition Front Bench, mentioned officers worrying about taking the coronavirus home. I understand their concerns. I join the noble Lord in congratulating Center Parcs on the position it adopted with regard to that matter. Clearly, it will be of considerable assistance. However, I do not recognise his reference to the removal of prisoners to care homes. I am not aware of that occurring, but I will inquire further.

On that point, let me say that we are carrying out all the steps that we consider appropriate, as advised by Public Health England. We are developing robust contingency plans and relying on an enormously dedicated group of staff to maintain the prison estate. We are, of course, concerned with the welfare of prisoners and shall continue to be.

I thank noble Lords for their contributions.

[Lord McFall of Alcluith]

My Lords, the Virtual Proceedings will now adjourn until 6 pm for the Government Statement.