Prisons (Drugs)

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 20 March 1997.

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Photo of Mr David Alton Mr David Alton , Liverpool Mossley Hill 12:00, 20 March 1997

I congratulate the Minister on her assiduousness in visiting so many prisons—[HON. MEMBERS: "All of them."]—in visiting all prisons, but does she agree that the level of recidivism among prisoners who continue to be addicted to drugs when they leave prison remains a major factor in fuelling the link between criminality and the taking of drugs? Does she agree that it is a curse on generations of young people that so many people ply drugs on street corners in cities such as Liverpool? Is that not a powerful incentive for crime? Does she further agree that nothing should be done to encourage the taking of drugs—particularly calls for their decriminalisation?