Pact response to Public Accounts Committee report on prisons

The Public Accounts Committee has published a new report  warning of 'gridlock' in prisons in England & Wales. The report argues that failed efforts to deal with overcrowding have increased violence and hampered rehabilitation efforts. 

Responding to the report Andy Keen-Downs, CEO of Pact said: “This is just the latest in a succession of reports to shed a light on the crisis in our prisons. 
 
“This crisis results from political decisions stretching back decades and a conveyor belt of ministers who have largely failed to display the courage required to deliver change. Prisons have endured years of funding cuts while locking up more and more people for longer and longer.   
 
“The Government is taking welcome and necessary action - last year’s early release scheme took immediate pressure off the system. However, the sentencing and prison capacity reviews currently underway must herald a longer-term change towards a system that locks up fewer people and does a better job of rehabilitating them.” 
 
Read more about Pact’s proposals for reform of the criminal justice system