The approach to the family visiting room, HMP Holloway, London ©Prisonimage.org
On 28 May the Member of Parliament for Hammersmith, Andy Slaughter, lamented that the Queen’s Speech contained no legislation specifically to deal with prisons. In reply, the new Secretary of State Michael Gove said: “I will be honest: although I would not use the word ‘crisis’, there are difficult issues to be addressed in our prison estate ... to ensure that they become places of rehabilitation as well as incarceration.”
If Mr Gove, who has taken over from Chris Grayling as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, were to ask my advice on how he and his team of Ministers should proceed, I would say that, before doing anything, they should obey the three key words that are impressed on every child when being taught road discipline – Stop, Look, Listen.
