§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have allowed, or intend to allow, the Kairos Prison Ministry, of Winter Park, Florida, into any prison in England and Wales; and whether granting a proselytising organisation unrestricted access to prisoners would be compatible with the provisions of Section 10(5) of the Prison Act 1952.
§ Baroness Blatch:Responsibility for these matters has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter to Lord Avebury from the Director of Services of the Prison Service, Mr. Hugh Taylor.
Lady Blatch has asked me in the absence of the Director General to reply to your recent Question about the Kairos Prison Ministry and whether they have been given access to any prisons in England and Wales.
A trial offending behaviour course is to be run by the Verne prison from 3 April based on the Kairos 18-week step programme. Volunteers drawn from local churches will be used as mentors and only employees of the Kairos Prison Ministry will be used to train them. It is not expected that Kairos personnel will be given access to prisoners.
The course will be voluntary. Prisoners and prison staff will not be expected to be on the wing assigned for the course against their will. Although the course is open to prisoners of all religions, it is firmly Christian based. This is explained to prisoners before they join. The wing will be run by prison staff and at no time will the volunteers have control. The scheme is to run for six months, after which time there will be a full evaluation of the course's merits.
The Prison Service believes that allowing members of Kairos access to prisons to train staff and prisoners willing to hear what they have to say does not breach Section 10(5) of the Prison Act 1952.