§ 9. Mr. Stonehouseasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress he is making in improving conditions for unconvicted prisoners who are held in prisons awaiting trial.
The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Dr. Shirley Summer-skill)Conditions are being improved to the extent that circumstances allow and the necessary resources can be made available.
§ Mr. StonehouseIs the Under-Secretary of State aware that that reply is quite unsatisfactory? It oozes with official complacency. Is not my hon. Friend aware that there are approximately 1,000 men in Brixton Prison, for example, and that many of them will be acquitted at the end of their trials? Some of them are kept in prison for over 12 months.
Is my hon. Friend aware that in one wing 300 men are kept in conditions that mean that three men are placed in a very small cell for 22½ hours per day? When they are allowed out of their cells, they have limited access to only six toilets. There are only four showers for 300 men. Are not these conditions disgusting and degrading? Will my hon. Friend bear in mind that these men are humans? Will she do something about their conditions?
§ Dr. SummerskillI can assure my right hon. Friend that we are not at all complacent about the conditions in local prisons. Unfortunately, nearly all local prisons are old and overcrowded. There is a continual programme of improvement in spite of severe economic constraint. At Brixton, work will begin in 1976–77 to improve the hospital and on an extension to accommodation for solicitors' visits. Work should also begin on the building of a new education and recreation block and a sports hall.
§ Mr. StonehouseIn view of the unsatisfactory nature of that reply, I beg to give notice that I shall raise the matter on the Adjournment.