§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what arrangements are in place to plan and monitor the prison career of non-life-sentenced prisoners. [7188]
§ Beverley HughesIn 1992, the Prison Service introduced the current sentence planning arrangements for non-life-sentenced prisoners. Sentence plans are now prepared for all adult prisoners serving sentences of 12 months or more (with at least six months to serve post sentence) and all young offenders with at least one month to serve post sentence. Life sentenced prisoners have their own sentence planning system. Juveniles (under 18s) have equivalent training plans.
The Prison Service sentence planning system is designed to co-ordinate the efforts of different individuals and agencies involved with the prisoner. It is used to help prepare prisoners for safe release and to make best use of the prisoner's time. It does this by encouraging them to address the reasons for their offending behaviour and by giving planned experience of work, training and education. Targets are set and progress reviewed at specified intervals. All prisoners involved in sentence planning are subject to a period of supervision under licence by the probation service after release.
Short-sentence prisoners, not covered by sentence planning, are still subject to various assessments. All prisoners have a health care assessment on reception and then, during induction, staff will begin to assess prisoners for drug treatment needs, education and resettlement needs.
933WA new system to assess prisoner risk and need, target interventions and plan for prisoners' release is currently being piloted.