Written evidence to be reported to the House

Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:00 pm on 16 October 2007.

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Christine Lawrie: In those 18 days, not a vast amount can be done. We would try to find accommodation and try to help them find work. We  would try to do what we could in that period of time. We would do our best, because that is what we are paid to do, but we would feel uncomfortable about picking up the fallout from trying to chip away at the prison population, which is a good thing. There is clearly an issue that needs to be resolved, but we would say that it is a bigger problem than can be resolved simply by taking small slices of the prison population and giving them to the probation service in a variety of ways. We would argue strongly for looking at it as a whole problem. It could perhaps be solved more imaginatively and sensibly by looking at it as a global problem, not constantly carving out a few prison places here and there by small bits of release and other activity through early release.