Bishop warns of crisis in prisons

THE Bishop of Chelmsford, Rt Revd John Gladwin, has spoken out about the crisis facing the prison system.

Taking part in the committee stages of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill on the floor of the House of Lords, the Bishop advocated establishing a commissioner for offender management and prisons on an independent, statutory basis.

He supported the protection of the rights and welfare of children in the criminal justice system and spoke in favour of raising the threshold for passing custodial sentences on young people. The Bishop said: "The Minister will be aware that Bishops have rights of entry into prisons and often have close relations with their local prisons.

"In our part of the country, we have been in the local press with regard to deaths in custody recently, and some important aspects of this issue need to be tackled, not least the fact that those who succeed in taking their own lives in prison are but the tip of the iceberg of the attempts made to do so.

"I am concerned about the morale of staff in prisons in relation to these matters. That is why the statutory basis should be independent. There needs to be clarity of structure and a
proper sense of accountability, so that those who are managing our prisons in their present state of crisis have a sense that they are getting proper public support."

Bishop John asked: "Do we not need to say in this House and in Parliament that in this nation of ours
we have far too many children and young people in custody?"

He added: "Surely the aim of legislation should be to assist us to turn that culture around and move in a new direction.

"For a number of years, my wife had professional work in the field of children held in custody. We know that the behaviour of some children and young people is deeply challenging to society.

"There is a danger of saying, ‘We don't know what to do with this hard core of children and young people who we can't cope with in society, so we must put them in custody.' "

● Visit www.chelmsford.anglican.org/ bishopspeeches for the speech in full.

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