HMP Leyhill: Offender Abscondments Debate
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Perran Moon
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HMP Leyhill: Offender Abscondments
Perran Moon Excerpts(3 days, 21 hours ago)
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Alex Davies-Jones
When a prisoner absconds from open conditions, the prison must notify the police immediately, so that officers can locate the individual and return them to custody. Local governors have good working relationships with their local police forces and maintain constant communication about efforts to locate prisoners who are at large, including on whether to launch a public appeal. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that the police launched a public appeal on 3 January to assist them in locating the prisoners. I encourage any member of the public who spots the prisoners not to approach them but to alert the local police so that we can bring them back into custody.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
Once again, the Opposition have clearly absconded from reality. Will the Minister remind the House what the previous Government—of which the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Newark (Robert Jenrick), was part—actually did to clamp down on absconds?
Alex Davies-Jones
Nothing—absolutely nothing. Absconds decreased under the previous Labour Government, and that trend carried on under the Tories until they failed—they have the poorest ever record. The number is down 2% on last year. The Conservatives’ failure to get to grips with this, fund our prisons and probation system effectively, and deal with the crumbling infrastructure of our prisons system has resulted in this crisis in our prisons. The Labour party is getting on with the job of cleaning up their mess.