Prison

Question 1

Access to drugs

Answer 1

According to statistics given in response to a parliamentary question, there were almost 4,500 instances of substances being taken from inmates in 2013/14

Question 2

The issue of safety in prison by the Prison Reform Trust

Answer 2

As the Prison Reform Trust reinforces, ‘prison is failing to meet people’s most basic need – safety.’

Question 3

The number of Open prisons and its implication

Answer 3

There are only 15 open prisons in the UK, which implies that prison focuses more on punishment than rehabilitation.

Question 4

Liz Truss’s action in tackling drugs in prison

Answer 4

Elizabeth Truss pledges to require prisoners to be tested for drug use on entry and exit from prison, in order to combat the widespread drug abuses in prison, which is essentially exacerbated reoffending rates and violence in prisons.

Question 5

What sort of people normally go to prison?

Answer 5

Prisoners are some of society’s most marginalised and vulnerable people. Many of them were let down by the education system early in the stage as children.

Question 6

Reoffending rate for short sentences

Answer 6

58% of prisoners on short sentences reoffend within a year of leaving jail.

Question 7

The rate of reoffending

Answer 7

One in every two criminals leaving prison will commit another crime within one year of walking out the prison gates.

Question 8

The soft condition in prison

• Point for failed to deter

Answer 8

Inmates have admitted conditions in some prisons are like those at holiday camps, with satellite television and video game consoles on offer as well as free bed and board

Question 9

The heavy implication of incarceration

Answer 9

imprisonment breaks up families and costs offenders their jobs and often their homes by the time they finish to serve their sentence.

Question 10

The importance of family support in the process of rehabilitation

Answer 10

40% of prisoners stated that support from their family would help them stop reoffending in the future. This is because it is something that helps prisoners to keep links with normal life while they are inside

Question 11

Assaults on prison staff

Answer 11

In the year to June, assaults on staff jumped by 43% to 5954 with 697 of these recorded as serious.

Question 12

Failure in protection

• G4S incident

Answer 12

In 2013, G4S and a rival security firm, Serco, overcharged the government by tens of millions for some non-existent electronic tags, which means that the public are not essentially subject to protection.

Question 13

Turss’s action in tackling understaffing

• More money

Answer 13

Truss pledges to grant more than £100m annually to strengthen the frontline with 2,500 more prison officers in the hope that it would be able to combat drug abuse, gang violence and the rising attacks on staff and prisoners.

Question 14

What is the consequence of lack of staff

Answer 14

Lack of staff meant that prisoners would have to stay in their cells for 23 hours, rather than having lessons or learning vocational skills under supervision.

Question 15

Failure of rehabilitation programmes

Answer 15

Rehabilitation programmes only reduces the reoffending rate to 41%.

Question 16

The education level of prisoners

Answer 16

There is only 53 per cent of the prison population have any qualifications, compared to 85 per cent of the working-age population

Question 17

Why is rehabilitation important?

Answer 17

With the right rehabilitation and support, they can go and make a positive contribution to society.

Question 18

Ex-offender support

• The Clink

Answer 18

The Clink, a prison-based restaurant chain, allows inmates to train for a City & Guilds qualification in food preparation and St Giles Trust runs a peer mentoring employability programme for ex-offenders.

Question 19

Success of rehabilitation

• Vocational training

Answer 19

vocational training effectively prepares prisoners to re-enter society productively.

Question 20

Incident that showed prison failed to protect the public

Answer 20

There were Inmates from Pentonville prison escaping and being murdered in November 2016.

Question 21

What is the prison population?

Answer 21

The rise of prison population is at a record of 85,000.

Question 22

Truss’s measure to tackle the lack of prison places

Answer 22

There are plans to open five new “community prisons” for women as part of a £1.3bn programme to provide 10,000 modern prison places by 2020.

Question 23

Suicides rates in prison

• Women

Answer 23

A total of 19 women have died in prison so far in 2016, at least eight of those deaths were self-inflicted.

Question 24

The financial implication of suicides rates in prison

Answer 24

As a consequence, the financial cost to taxpayer could be as much as £300 million a year.

Question 25

Incident to demonstrate violence in prison

Answer 25

In October 2016, East Sussex jail, ‘prison staff were forced to “retreat to safety” when inmates “went on the rampage”.

Question 26

The lack of staff in East Sussex jail October 2016

Answer 26

There were only four staff on that wing and all four retreated to safety after threats of violence.’

Question 27

The number of prison staff reduced

Answer 27

The number of prison staff has been reduced by more than 6,000 since 2010 whilst the prison population has remained the same, at 85,000.

Question 28

Truss’s measure in tackling the lack of staff

• prison officer apprenticeship scheme

Answer 28

A prison officer apprenticeship scheme to be introduced next year will provide 1,000 new officers and a graduate scheme will provide 40 more a year.

Question 29

What is the opposition saying?

Answer 29

The shadow prison minister, Richard Burgon said the reforms were “too little too late” and blamed the government’s cuts for the state of our prisons, as is a £700m budget cut

Question 30

Retribution

• Prison does work

Answer 30

Deprivation of liberty is the most extreme punishment that can be mete out to an offender in the UK.

Question 31

Prison failed to deter

• Number of people go into education

Answer 31

Just 36% of people leaving prison go into education, training or employment. Many are homeless and debt in debt on release.