Oral Answers to Questions — Justice – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 1:45 pm on 17 June 2024.
The Prisons 25by25 strategic improvement programme captures the Prison Service's ambition for continued development and improvement. The focus of the programme is delivering the best possible service to those in our care and for wider society. Year 2 concluded at the end of March. Achievements included three recruitment campaigns; further development of support services for serving and former staff; the launch of a substance misuse strategy; the completion of over 100 minor works projects; and the roll-out of X-ray body scanners in all three prisons. The programme has now entered its third and final year. While it is right that the planned actions continue to be ambitious, it is important to acknowledge the context in which the Prison Service will be operating and delivering, with a significantly increased and increasing prison population.
I thank the Minister for her answer. Could the Minister update the House on the development of the programme to facilitate autism-friendly visits as part of the strengthening family relations strategy?
I thank the Member for the opportunity to do so. A number of years ago, when I visited the prisons, one of our staff had helpfully designed a programme to support children with autism or, indeed, neurodiversity to access prison visits better than had been the case in the past. As people will appreciate, family connections are a hugely important part of the rehabilitation process. They are also a hugely important part of a prisoner's life when they are apart from their family and, conversely, for their family when they are apart from the prisoner. Therefore, a lot is at stake when those visits go well or do not go well.
Autism and autism spectrum disorders can lead to people finding the prison environment stressful and to a degradation in the quality of visits. That programme was put in place to support individuals who are neurodiverse and acquaint them with the processes that they would face when they arrive at prison, with the different stages of search and with the environment. Obviously, those who have particular sensory issues will often find prison a stressful environment. The noise, the sniffer dogs and the change of environment can be stressful, so preparing children, in particular, and adult visitors for what to expect when they arrive at the prison has proven to be valuable to families. We also recognise that some of our prisoners arrive with complex needs and often with undiagnosed neurodiversity issues. We are looking at how we can better support those prisoners on their journey through the system so that they get the maximum benefit from their time in our custody.
I would advise the Member to raise the operational detail of that with the director general. However, no one would have access to security-level information unless they have been adequately cleared to take up that role. Checks are made before people are allocated to the roles that they play in the system. I imagine that it would be the same with PRISM.
What impact is the rising population having in prisons?
Our experience shows us and evidence demonstrates that a high prison population generally results in an increase in tension in the prison setting. Managing prisoners through encouraging positive behaviour becomes more challenging, leading, for example, to increases in assaults and incidents. When we are dealing with a more volatile environment, that leads to increases in the use of force, the number of adjudications and the use of segregation. That can contribute to prisoners, particularly vulnerable prisoners, feeling more unsafe, and levels of self-harm tend to increase.
Prisoners, in general, are cooperative when they are treated with humanity and respect; in essence, when relationships between them and prison staff are positive and courteous. Therefore, it is hugely important that the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) seeks to maintain appropriate living conditions, out-of-cell time and the delivery of a predictable and stable regime. If NIPS does not have sufficient staff available each day, it is not possible to offer that predictability, and, therefore, restrictions will increase, out-of-cell time will reduce and relationships with staff will deteriorate. The fact that over 500 prisoners are doubling up across the estate also impacts on living conditions and on prisoner and staff morale.