David
Lidington, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, speaking today
at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, said:
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“Yesterday morning, as Lord Chancellor, I joined our country’s senior
judges and lawyers in Westminster Abbey to mark the opening of the new legal
year. Then we processed together across Parliament Square to Westminster Hall –
the heart of our democracy.
It was a great occasion, a celebration of the long history and ancient
traditions of our legal system.
But at heart, what was being honoured was not wigs and robes, nor ritual
and protocol, but the living constitutional principles which that ceremony
affirmed.
The rule of law and the independence of the judiciary underpin our
democracy and lie at the heart of our way of life. They are the very
cornerstone of our freedoms.
No individual, no organization, no government is above the law.
That is why the refusal by the leadership of today’s Labour Party to
rule out supporting illegal strikes is a shameful abdication of responsibility
from a party seeking to govern.
I believe, this party believes, in the rule of law, and in our system of
justice that protects the innocent, punishes the guilty, and gives voice to
victims.
And after seven years of Conservatives in office, crime is down by a
third. More victims of serious crimes – particularly sexual offences – are
coming forward, no longer silenced by fear of stigma or mistrust.
Of course there is always more to be done. That’s why, together with
Amber Rudd, I am developing a comprehensive strategy to tackle domestic
violence and abuse, a pernicious crime that has been in the shadows for too
long in our country.
I pay tribute to our Prime Minister, Theresa May, who has been
unwavering in the fight against injustice throughout her time at the Home
Office and in Downing Street.
I also want to thank my outstanding ministerial team – Dominic Raab, Sam
Gyimah, Phillip Lee and Richard Keen, our whips Mike Freer and Charlotte Vere
and our PPSs Lucy Frazer and Alan Mak. They all work incredibly hard for our
party and for our country.
They deserve our thanks.
The greatest challenge facing our criminal justice system is in our
prisons.
The men and women who work in our prisons are the unsung heroes of the
criminal justice system.
Day in, day out, they accept responsibility for more than 86,000
offenders, to keep them secure and the public safe.
As I’ve visited prisons and listened to officers and governors, I’ve
been struck by their professionalism, their dedication and their commitment,
not just to keep prisons secure, but to do everything they can to help
prisoners make a change in their lives.
Too often, this work can be forgotten. It’s unseen behind the high walls
of our prisons. But we should all take this opportunity to thank our prison
staff for what they do on behalf of us all.
Prison officers face enormous pressure. The levels of violence inside
our prisons are too high. So are cases of self-harm and suicide among
prisoners.
Last year, the Prisons Ombudsman said that the arrival of new synthetic
drugs into our prisons was a game-changer. These drugs, smuggled in from the
outside, were – he said – increasing violence, debt, poor health, and
instability.
Today, more of that drug traffic is being orchestrated by sophisticated
criminal networks. Gangs smuggle not only drugs, but mobile phones for
their operations. They use drones to drop as much as a kilo of drugs at a time.
They stop at nothing, even spraying children’s drawings – sent to inmates –
with liquid synthetic drugs to infiltrate our prisons.
This is no cottage industry. This is not a matter of opportunism. It is
serious organized crime.
I am determined to do more to track and target that crime. So today I
can announce the start of additional intelligence-led counter-drone operations,
to disrupt drones as they enter prison airspace and trace them back to the
criminals involved.
Inside prisons, we’ve already deployed hundreds of sniffer dogs trained
to detect drugs, and we’re working with the technology companies to block
mobile signals and drones within the prison walls. And today I can announce
pilots of a new generation of body scanners to add to our tools in the fight
against drug smuggling.
And we have ramped up our efforts to deploy more and better trained
staff. Today we have 868 more prison officers on duty than at the start of the
year, meaning we are on course to hire two and half thousand extra frontline
officers by the end of 2018. And we are keeping them safer too – training staff
to use body-worn cameras to deter assaults and capture evidence whenever they
occur.
We will not let up on action to ensure that our prisons are secure and
that prison staff and prisoners are safe.
Here today, in Manchester, we are reminded of the loss and the grief
this city suffered when terrorists struck here in May, at the most innocent and
vulnerable of us all: children emerging from a concert. As the Prime Minister
has said, we cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are.
We have stepped up the work within prison to contain dangerous
extremists, opening separation units to stop our most toxic prisoners from
being able to groom or intimidate others. And we’ve established a counter-intelligence
unit to monitor and disrupt the evolving threat of extremism behind bars.
Safety and security are important in their own right, but they’ve got a
broader purpose too. The real prize of a calm and ordered prison environment is
to make it possible to transform them into places of genuine reform and
rehabilitation.
All bar a tiny handful of prisoners will one day be released. And we
cannot be satisfied with a situation in which nearly half of prisoners reoffend
within a year of release. That failure matters. It matters to us, as
Conservatives, because in the end the cost of reoffending is borne by the
victims of those crimes.
Let me be clear: those who commit crimes are responsible for their
actions. And successful rehabilitation has to start with the prisoner wanting
to make it work. There are some who, no matter what support is offered, will
show no remorse and no desire to change.
Nothing can excuse crime. But we have to recognise that the problems in
our prisons don’t start at the gates.
A quarter of prisoners have spent time in care. Many come from homes
that were at best chaotic, at worst violent and abusive. And the cycle
perpetuates: nearly two thirds of prisoners’ sons go on to commit crime. Most
prisoners assessed on arrival have the reading skills of an 11-year-old, and
half have no qualifications at all.
When these prisoners return to society I want to see them able to get a
job and to keep it. I want them willing and able to take responsibility for
themselves and their families, keeping on the straight and narrow rather than
falling back into their old ways.
And I want more intensive rehabilitation to take place in the community,
particularly to tackle offenders with substance misuse and mental health needs.
We also need probation to work better, so we have tough community sentences
that command the confidence of the courts and the public.
Now, rehabilitation does not mean that we ignore the need for punishment
and deterrence. It means using the time that we have people inside to maximize
the chance that they will change their attitudes when they get out, spending as
much time as possible in classrooms and workshops, not banged up in cells.
So I am pushing ahead with reform. I am giving prison governors new
powers over how their prisons are run. Next year, every governor will be given
the power to tailor education and training to the needs of their prisoners.
They’ll have more freedom to innovate, but they will also be held to account
for the results of their work.
And that goes for us too. Openness and transparency are powerful
instruments of change. The reports of prison inspectors shine a spotlight on
problems. Where recommendations are made by the Inspectorate, they should be
followed up. So I have set up a new taskforce, charged with responding promptly
and publicly to inspection reports and following those through with action to
put problems right – and if we disagree, providing a clear, public explanation.
We have a particular responsibility towards young prisoners. We cannot
sit back and allow them to become the adult offenders of tomorrow.
Since we took office in 2010, the number of young people in custody has
plummeted – by nearly two-thirds- leaving only the most serious and difficult
offenders behind bars.
These youngsters also have the most complex needs.
Youth custody cannot just be the dumping ground for society’s problems.
So I can today announce a new investment of £64 million to entrench
reform of youth custody. We will boost the number of frontline staff in youth
offender institutions by 20% – that’s 120 additional recruits, including newly
trained specialist youth justice workers, equipped to tackle the needs of young
offenders.
The work of overcoming the challenges in our prisons means we are also
looking beyond the prison walls for solutions.
It includes the work Jeremy Hunt is leading across government on a new
strategy for mental health. That will help ensure offenders get the help they
need both in prison and after release.
It embraces Justine Greening’s drive to promote high-quality
apprenticeships and first-class technical and vocational education to give
prisoners – old and young – the chance to get steady, quality work after
prison.
The private sector has a role to play, too.
Redemption Roasters, a new start-up working at Aylesbury Young Offender
Institution in my own constituency, is offering the boys there a full-time
barista training programme, with a real prospect of employability. They are
working with one 22 year-old apprentice, who in his own words has “never had
any experience of working legit”. He’s now about to begin his first job at
Redemption’s flagship coffee shop in central London.
This is what a fresh start looks like.
From Timpsons, to Greggs the bakers, to Halfords, to the construction
firm Mitie, employers are appreciating what ex-offenders have to offer: the
hard-work and dedication of someone committed to proving they deserve that
second chance.
We need to take this further. That’s why I am today announcing a new
national task force – the New Futures Network – to match offenders with
employers and make sure training in prisons mirrors the demands in the local
jobs market.
The evidence shows that a former prisoner who has got both the
responsibility and opportunity that comes with work is far less likely to
reoffend. Getting prisoners into employment works.
This work of reform is ambitious and difficult. I’m not going to promise
instant solutions. We are dealing with some of the most troubling and troubled
people in society.
But there are two things which, despite those difficulties, still fill
me with hope.
The first is the success stories I’ve heard in our prisons.
There’s the officer in Northumberland who runs the recycling yard in his
prison, who’s built basic English and Maths skills into the work, and set up
links with local businesses to secure jobs for his men when they’ve done their
time.
One of the prisoners in his team put it this way. He said: “Not only
does this give us hope, it also gives us purpose in life”.
Or the prisoner in South Wales who told me how it was the work of staff
there to maintain and strengthen contact between prisoners and their families
that had finally made him realise how much damage his criminal past and his
absence in prison had caused to a partner and children whom he loved, and how
he was determined, once released, not to let them down again.
Or the amazing work by charities, from women’s groups to churches to
sports clubs to get them to see that there is a better way than going back to a
life of crime. I want to see charities and voluntary groups, large and small,
play an even stronger role as we move forward with our reforms.
And the second thing that gives me both hope and confidence is what,
after more than 40 years of membership, I know about our Party.
We say that the Conservative Party is the party of one nation. We
are at our best when we speak and act and work on behalf of every part of this
country, when we strive to do our best for people from all walks of life,
whatever their background, their accent, their beliefs or the colour of their
skin.
And just as there can be no no-go areas, no city, no estate, no street
that is out-of-bounds for us in our campaigning, so there should be no area of
policy, no social challenge that we should fear to address.
So let our government and our party work together, with energy, confidence
and determination on the great cause of prison and penal reform.
And through our efforts let us pass on to the next generation a country
that is more fair, more ready to offer a second chance, and more just than the
one that we inherited ourselves.”
ENDS
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