Mary Riddell has a superb, and very worrying interview with HM Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers in this week's New Statesman. Click HERE to read it. It appears she warned Ministers three years ago that there was a growing problem with foreign prisoners not being deported. "If we wrote our prison reports by computer, which we do not, you could push any button and find a reference to the lack of a foreign nationals strategy. I could hardly have made more clear the absence of a strategy for managing foreign prisoners. I could also hardly have made it more clear, when I was looking at the immigration side, that there were enormous administrative failings."She also lays into the government for abolishing the Prisons Inspectorate in three months time. "Home secretaries have as their resource people who know prisons from the inside out. They need to make use of that expertise, rather than dilute it. I cannot see that [as the legislation stands], it will be anything other than diluted."
If I were John Reid reading this, I'd be even more worried about developments in the Home Office than I was already.
I've ceased to become surprised by the sheer scale of incompetence exhibited by this Government. Releasing dangerous foreign nationals from prison, the tax credit chaos, the payments to farmers chaos, letting paedophiles teach our kids, dodgy dossiers, David Kelly etc etc. Where does it end?
ReplyDeleteLabour are no longer fit to govern. And above all of this, our Prime Minister goes on a quick world tour to tell the planet how we should make things better.
He should start by sorting out the mess he's created here. His legacy is screwed.