Inspectors questioning whether cells are safe for human
habitation looks like a new low for the prison system. In truth there are many
establishments besides Winchester
providing what the Prison
Governors Association describe as “truly shocking conditions where
prisoners are expected to live, and our colleagues work.”
But how many prisons, what kinds of shocking conditions and
what will it take to bring them up to acceptable standards? Inspection and Monitoring
Reports provide a valuable but only partial picture. A more comprehensive assessment is surely
needed.
As it happens, last year the Prison Service conducted a
survey of conditions in each of the public sector prisons and a sample of the private
ones. Earlier this year, the then Prisons Minister told the Justice
Committee that the report on the State of the Estate would be completed by
the end of that month. It has not however
been made public.
Following a FOI request I made, the MoJ argued that disclosing
the survey report would prejudice their commercial interests and impinge on the
process of formulating policy. Both seem largely spurious objections which
could be met, if necessary, through redaction. But the MoJ have decided the public
interest favours withholding the information at this time.
I had hoped that the new Government might have placed a
greater value on transparency and perhaps calculated that - as with Lord Darzi’s
report on the NHS- putting the true picture in the public domain would reinforce
the difficulty of their inheritance and the need for remedial investment.
The newly formed Justice Committee should press the new
Prisons Minister to publish at least a summary of the State of the Estate report
not least because the MoJ accept in their FoI response that releasing it “could
help inform and further the public debate on this subject matter”.
That’s important because addressing the scale and nature of
the problems facing existing prisons should be just as urgent a challenge as
the purported need to create future custodial places.