The Justice Secretary has today
announced:
-
A national taskforce – the New Futures Network – to
help get ex-offenders into jobs
-
A £64m investment in youth custody to boost
staffing and education for young offenders
-
New investment in the latest technology to fight
organised crime behind bars
Justice Secretary today (3 October) announced
a new national taskforce to help get ex-offenders into
employment, alongside measures to boost prison security, as part
of the government’s ambitious prison reform agenda.
The New Futures Network will target employers to sell the
benefits of employing ex-offenders, as well as advising governors
on the right training to give former prisoners the best chance of
getting back into work upon release.
Speaking at the Conservative Party conference, confirmed an extra
£64million investment in the youth estate over the next four
years. This will fund a 20% increase in frontline staff, new
specialist youth justice workers, and better vocational training.
He vowed to tackle organised criminals in our prisons who smuggle
in drugs and contraband for profit. He announced additional
intelligence-led anti-drone operations, which use the latest
technology to disrupt drones as they enter the prison airspace;
and new pilots of the latest in body-scanning technology to allow
prison officers to find drugs.
Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary said:
“Prison should give justice for victims, depriving offenders of
their liberty as punishment for serious crimes. But it also needs
to rehabilitate prisoners, to stop the cycle of reoffending.
“Our prisons must become secure places of work and
self-improvement, where offenders are challenged to make a fresh
start when they leave.
“I am committed to reforming prisons so offenders are set on a
path to turn away from crime upon release – resulting in lower
crime, safer communities and a better future for our country.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- · We are
also investing £100 million a year to increase the number of
prison officers by 2,500.[1] We
are on track to deliver this by 2018. From January 2017
there has been a net increase of 868 new prison officers, with
the current rate of recruitment at its highest level in a
decade.[2]
- · We
have rolled out 5,600 body worn cameras across the country to
deter violence, so prison officers in England and Wales now have
access to one. These devices record incidents in the most
challenging situations, helping to deter violence against
prison staff, and to bring those who commit assaults to justice.
- · The
measures announced by the Justice Secretary today also include an
investment in new state-of-the-art drones, to be the aerial eyes
and ears of prison officers on the ground and bring incidents to
a quicker resolution. This technology will also allow us to
capture evidence of criminal behaviour for use in prosecutions.
2 MoJ Press Notice, Record Numbers of Prison Officer
Recruits, 17 August 2017.
