§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will explain the differences between the separate unit for prisoners under punish- 120W ment or segregated under Rule 43 at Gartree Prison, Leicestershire, and a prison control unit.
§ Dr. SummerskillThere is a segregation unit for prisoners removed from association in accordance with Rule 43 of the Prison Rules 1964 and for prisoners undergoing punishment involving cellular confinement at each of the seven dispersal prisons including Gartree. They were established following the Report of the Advisory Council on the Penal System on the Régime for Long Term Prisoners in Conditions of Maximum Security.
The control unit at Wakefield is a central unit which was designed to relieve dispersal prisons for limited periods from the pressures and strains imposed by the activities of those few prisoners who determinedly and persistently set out to undermine and disrupt prison life and make conditions intolerable both for staff and other prisoners. The criteria and safeguards governing allocation to this central unit were set out in the reply to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Mr. Graham) on 14th November 1974.—[Vol. 881, c. 195–6.]
§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners escaped from Gartree Prison, Leicestershire, in 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 and to the most recent practicable date in 1975.
§ Dr. SummerskillFour in 1972. None in any of the other years mentioned.