Conservatives’ cuts are creating a crisis in our prisons - Richard Burgon MP

Richard Burgon MP, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, commenting on Ministry of Justice data which reveals a record number of assaults in prisons, said: 

“Once again we see how Conservatives’ cuts are creating a crisis in our prisons. Every few months we get a new record for the number of assaults as the Government’s cutting of prisons budgets and staff bites. It is scandalous that we now have an assault every 20 minutes in our prisons.

“Government policies that have led to severe overcrowding and cutting of more than 6,000 prison officers are squarely to blame for this situation. Yet one in three prisons suffered further cuts in officer numbers in the first six months of this year alone.

“When prisoners can’t be let out of their cells for 23 hours a day due to soaring violence and under-staffing, it makes a mockery of the Government’s claims that it is turning prisons into places of education and reform.”