It's the public that foots the bill for prison privatisation says Labour

Richard Burgon, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, responding to Justice Minister Rory Stewart’s appearance at the Justice Select Committee, said: 

“From the crisis in prisons maintenance to the failings of our probation services, the Tories’ obsession with privatisation and outsourcing has caused widespread damage to our justice system – and it’s the public who’ve had to foot the bill.

“With a Labour government, there will be no new private prisons and no public sector prisons will be privatised. Labour will bring all the outsourced prison maintenance contracts back in house at the earliest possible opportunity. The Tories must abandon this failed experiment of prison privatisation.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

• ·         Rory Stewart told the Justice Select Committee on Tuesday that the Treasury has approved a new private sector prison at Glen Parva and that the previous prisons’ maintenance contract outsourced to Carillion was “completely unsustainable”