Lord Rooker
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Drones: High-security Prisons
Lord Rooker Excerpts(3 days, 10 hours ago)
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Lord Timpson (Lab)
The noble Lord is completely right that the prisons I am visiting now are very different from the prisons I visited 15 or 20 years ago. The buildings are often in decrepit states of repair. We have a lot of new staff who are still learning the skills of being a prison officer and we have an awful lot more to do to ensure that people, when they are in prison, spend their days purposefully, not just sitting in their cells.
Lord Rooker (Lab)
Can I ask my noble friend about Long Lartin? I am going beyond the Question, but is the safety of the inmates as such today that they are able to exercise in every exercise yard? Long Lartin’s proximity to the countryside and the geography around it allow potential problems from the outside against the inmates. I should like an assurance that that matter has been dealt with since I visited some years ago.
Lord Timpson (Lab)
Like the noble Lord, I visited some years ago, so I do not have an exact picture in my mind of the layout of the exercise yards. I can assure him that every male closed prison now has X-ray scanners. In 2003, there were over 1,000 drone sightings. They were up 770% between 2019 and 2023. We have a serious problem but if I know any more details, I will let him know.