Bedford Prison

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 10:53 am on 13 September 2018.

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Photo of Barry Sheerman Barry Sheerman Labour/Co-operative, Huddersfield 10:53, 13 September 2018

It is a very long time since I was the shadow prisons Minister and visited a lot of prisons, including Bedford, but is it not a fact that we cannot make excuses? When a prison is in a situation like the one Bedford is in, there is something wrong with the prison’s culture, and if there is something wrong with the culture, it is to do with the quality of the management. Should we not look into that? When I was Chair of the Education Select Committee, we visited prisons and looked at prison education, and we learned a lot by going to Scandinavia, where they have similar challenges but handle them better.