§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the impact of overcrowding on the ability of an individual to participate in reoffending reduction courses. [135493]
§ Paul GogginsThe Prison Service keeps the impact of population pressures under review. The main threat to offending behaviour programmes stems from prisoners being transferred to another prison before completing a programme, in order to alleviate population pressures. So far this has been largely avoided. Only 1.5 per cent. of prisoners who started a cognitive skills offending
722Wawaiting trial. This information is shown in the following table. The number of prisoners awaiting trial who share a cell with convicted prisoners is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Prison Service rules and policy state that prisoners awaiting trial should not be required to share a cell with a convicted prisoner. Where it becomes necessary for an unconvicted prisoner to share with a convicted prisoner due to population pressures, they should only do so if they have given their consent.
Every effort is made to ensure that appropriate prisoners are located together and any such decision is made on the basis of staff judgment and experience. Steps are taken to ensure that prisoners are held safely. A full cell-sharing risk assessment procedure is carried out before prisoners are considered suitable to share a cell.
behaviour programme in 2002–03 failed to complete the programme as a result of transfer (which may have been due to overcrowding or for other reasons). This is similar to the previous three years and compares with 4.8 per cent. in 1996–97.