PRT comment: Government response to Justice Committee’s rehabilitation report “inadequate”

Commenting on the government’s response to the Justice Committee’s report ‘Ending the cycle of reoffending – part one: rehabilitation in prisons’, Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“We share the justice committee’s concern regarding the government’s inadequate response to its report on rehabilitation. Cuts to the education budget are having a detrimental impact on the availability and quality of provision in the adult and youth estate. This is despite the Ministry of Justice’s own evidence that education can have a positive impact on reducing people’s risk of reoffending.

“We welcome the government’s commitment to expand the use of release on temporary licence and review the operational framework for this valuable rehabilitative tool. Commitments to increase governors’ understanding and oversight of procurement and proposals to improve reporting on healthcare access and outcome data are also welcome.

“The Sentencing Act has gone someway to avert a capacity crisis but the job of addressing the manifold problems in our prison system is far from over. A comprehensive plan of action is needed setting out how the government will address the issues identified by the committee, including chronic levels of overcrowding, decaying infrastructure, staffing issues, and poor rehabilitative provision.”