Justice Committee Covid-19 submission 2 April 2020 copy

Emergency population reduction measures Whilst we welcomed the government’s announcement on 4 April, now that the detail of the Early Conditional Temporary Release (ECTR) scheme has been made available, it is abundantly clear that only a small fraction of the 4,000 prisoners supposedly in scope are actually likely to benefit. [...] Together with the Howard League we have written again to the Lord Chancellor expressing our profound anxiety and making suggestions for the elements of an approach which, even at this late stage, could avoid some of the loss of life to which his current policy will contribute. [...] Prisoner communications We wrote last week about the importance of boosting telephone access in the absence of visits and given the absence of prisoner-facing ICT in prisons (another aspect of our prison system which has now been exposed as anachronistic and self- defeating). [...] Accountability/ transparency We are pleased that HMCIP has confirmed plans for single day announced visits following the suspension of the regular programme of inspections in March, The need for independent oversight is urgent and the results need to be made public immediately without the usual process of clearance within HMPPS. [...] But we are hugely troubled that there appears to be a political reticence about the scale and speed of the response that is needed to prevent a death rate in prisons that will exceed the death rate in the community by a very substantial degree.