Lib Dems condemn Govt for coronavirus crisis in prisons

Today Liberal Democrat Peer and former Deputy First Minister for Wales, Lord German, will be leading a debate in the Houses of Parliament to question the Government over their inaction in stopping the spread of coronavirus across prisons in England and Wales.

Mike German, who is the Party's Spokesperson for Prison Reform in the House of Lords, is set to raise the issue of overcrowding in prisons and overstretched prisons staff across England and Wales, making them "a perfect crucible" for coronavirus to spread.

Speaking ahead of his debate, Mike German said:

“Throughout the coronavirus crisis, the Liberal Democrats have repeatedly warned the Government about the dangers posed by our already overstretched prisons and prisons staff.  The fact that conditions in our prisons were so already poor has made them a perfect crucible for the disease.

"The Government has refused to listen to the Liberal Democrats and others pointing out the danger in not properly protecting prisoners and prison staff from the virus, meaning numbers of inmates and staff with the disease have risen dramatically.

“By Ministers allowing coronavirus to spread through our prisons, they are not only failing in their duty of care, but threatening the public health of our communities. The Government must stop ignoring the crisis and release all low-risk prisoners on short term sentences and suspend short term sentences without any further delay."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The debate will take place as the last item of business in the House of Lords.

Mike German's speech is as follows (check against delivery):

The govt has three big questions to answer
 
1)Has the government failed in its duty of duty of care to Prison staff and prisoners?
2) Have the government’s acts to date been too little and too late?
3) Are the government’s actions sufficient to safeguard the public from the community spread of coronavirus – has it adequately ensured that the safety of the public has not been put at risk?
 
I would like to thank all the organisations who have provided me with supporting evidence to understand these key questions, and in particular the Howard League for Penal Reform, the Prison Reform Trust and Women in Prison.
 
I also want to acknowledge that the government has limited room for manoeuvre given the systemic problems over many years within our prison system - problems of overcrowding, maintenance backlogs, and inadequate support to prepare people for release.
 
On my first question – has the government failed in its duty of care, we just have to look at the statistics on virus transmission to identify the scale of the problem. 
 
The first reported coronavirus case in a prison in England and Wales occurred on 18th March.  By April 1st there were 88 cases among staff and prisoners, by 8thApril that number rose to 177, by April 15th it rose to 300, and on Monday of this week it rose again to 504.  These figures demonstrate an exponential rise, and no sign of a flattening curve.   In fact in the last week alone the number of cases has risen from 269 to 504.  Sadly prisoners, officers and staff have died from coronavirus, I ask the Minister to provide the latest details.
 
Isolation, social distancing, testing and wearing of protective equipment are the actions we should expect to be undertaken to protect prisoners and staff alike.   Our overcrowded prisons make it very difficult to isolate or develop social distancing. By way of example, Swansea, the most overcrowded prison in England and Wales is supposed to hold no more than 250 men, but at end February it held 436.  The government response is to create three cohorts of prisoner, and try to isolate one from the other.  Those with coronavirus symptoms, those who might have been exposed to the virus or new to prison, and a vulnerable group to be shielded.   To create the space for this to happen the govt has announced it will build 2000 temporary cells – can the Minister tell us how many of these have now been built and are occupied?  Also how many prisoners are currently required to share a cell or sleep in a dormitory?   Is the wearing of PPE compulsory for staff, and can the Minister confirm reports of woefully low numbers of available equipment?
 
And given the example of HMP Berwyn in Wrexham, our largest prison, where 60% of the cells are designed to hold two people built in breach of United Nations minimum standards – social distancing is impossible.
 
I am afraid the conclusion reached is that because of a failure of testing, availability of PPE, isolation and social distancing and the exponential rise in coronavirus cases - our prisons are incubators, pumping the virus and spreading it to the community both within and outside their walls.   For the 17,000 prisoners sharing a cell, whether the virus is contracted is truly a terrifying lottery.
 
On my second question – have government actions been too little and too late?   I turn to the governments key proposal to reduce the spread of the virus by creating more space in the prison system through the early release of prisoners.
  
There is confusion on how many prisoners are to be released – the government says 4000 plus pregnant women prisoners, but we are told that PHE (Public Health England) and the HMPPS (Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service) have recommended a reduction of 15000 prisoners to properly safeguard both prisoners and staff.  But either way progress has been painfully slow to reach even the lower government target.  Only 14 of the 70 pregnant women have been released. The End of Custody Temporary Release Scheme has only released a handful – just 4 by 14 April.   This rate of release is too slow, and too late to ‘save lives and avoid a public health catastrophe both within prisons and beyond’ – not my words but those of the Secretary of State for Justice announcing the release scheme earlier this month.  Has the ECTR scheme been re-started and how many have now been released? Has the government got sufficient powers to facilitate early release – and if not why haven’t they taken them?
 
Meanwhile new prisoners are being admitted – can the NL The Minister tell the House how many prisoners have been admitted to prison in the last month, and also how many prisoners are being held on remand?
 
All around the globe countries are releasing prisoners under strict conditions.   The MOJ response falls way below any international comparator, and in the UK, below that of Northern Ireland.
 
The scientific advice is quite clear – the risk of infection is much higher in ‘congregate settings’ like prisons.  So - the fewer the people in those settings the better.  And there is a similar situation which applies to Immigration Detention Centres.  By definition these people are not criminals but they are definitely vulnerable.
 
And finally, to my third question – is  public health adequately safeguarded by the government’s actions?
 
Prisons are not places of total isolation.  – 50,000 staff and workers enter and leave daily.  Goods and services arrive and leave.   Prison staff have woefully low items PPE equipment, and nearly a quarter of staff are self-isolating at home.  The reduced numbers serving the prison population has resulted in lock ins for 23 hours at a time with often more than one person in a cell.  Testing of staff has only just started, and those tested are a tiny proportion of staff overall.  
 
As expert adviser Professor Croker says ‘Closed environments contribute to secondary transmission of COVID-19 and promote superspreading events. Closed environments are consistent with large-scale COVID-19 transmission events such as that of the ski chalet-associated cluster in France and the church- and hospital-associated clusters in South Korea.‘
  
The government response to the pandemic in respect of the prison and probation service has been inadequate and lacking in urgency.  What we have witnessed is too little and too slow.   Urgent action is needed to save lives.
 
In these exceptional circumstances, the government must accelerate and widen the release scheme, including vulnerable offenders, children and pregnant women.  Only then will prisons have the space to isolate and undertake some social distancing.  And we need a presumption against using short prison sentences – they don’t generally work anyway, so sending more people to prison for a short time is a double whammy to beat the pandemic.
 
The prison estate is now a perfect crucible for the disease.  The dangers have been pointed out to the government but they appear reticent to act.  This has put prisoners and prison staff in danger.  The government has failed in its duty of care, sleep walking into a crisis which it must avoid.
 
Prisons were already overstretched and overcrowded before coronavirus – adding this crisis on top makes it a “a perfect storm” for our prison and probation service.