Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Justice – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 23 November 2010.
Crispin Blunt
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice) (Prisons and Probation)
2:30,
23 November 2010
I am not sure that I recognise that as a basic human right, but it is certainly operationally sensible. Providing support for prisoners when they are incarcerated away from their families is an important part of assisting their rehabilitation into society. However, speculation about which prisons might or might not close in future is not appropriate at this stage. We will conduct a review of prison capacity in the light of the green paper and the responses to it, and only at that stage-
A Green Paper is a tentative report of British government proposals without any commitment to action. Green papers may result in the production of a white paper.
From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_paper