THE English prisons minister has promised to resign if he fails to turn around the country's most violent and drug-infested jails in a year.
In a rare moment of political accountability, Rory Stewart said he would quit if there had not been improvements in the 10 worst prisons south of the border.
He made the announcement live on BBC Breakfast Time as he announced an extra £10m to tackle problems with new body scanners and sniffer dogs.
A repairs programme will also improve cells and perimeter security.
The Penrith MP said new psychoactive substances such as Spice were hugely challenging, but visible governors and focusing on drugs and cleanliness could make a big difference.
He said: “I will quit if I haven’t succeeded in 12 months in reducing the level of drugs and violence in those prisons. I want to make a measurable difference.
“I believe in the prison service. I believe in our prison officers. I believe that this can be turned around. I want you to judge me on those results and I’ll resign if I don’t succeed.”
Last year there were more than 3500 assaults in the 10 prisons involved, up 15% in a year.
Most of the prisons are in Yorkshire, Humberside and the Midlands.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel