Conservatives’ cuts are creating a crisis in our prisons – Richard Burgon MP

Richard Burgon MP, Labour’s Shadow
Secretary of State for Justice, commenting
on Ministry of Justice data which reveals a record number of assaults
in prisons, said: 

“Once again we see how
Conservatives’ cuts are creating a crisis in our prisons. Every few months we
get a new record for the number of assaults as the Government’s cutting of
prisons budgets and staff bites. It is scandalous that we now have an assault every
20 minutes in our prisons.

“Government policies that have led
to severe overcrowding and cutting of more than 6,000 prison officers are
squarely to blame for this situation. Yet one in three prisons suffered further
cuts in officer numbers in the first six months of this year alone.

“When prisoners can’t be let out
of their cells for 23 hours a day due to soaring violence and under-staffing,
it makes a mockery of the Government’s claims that it is turning prisons into
places of education and reform.”