Naomi Long: I have had no conversations with Minister McEntee about the pooling of resources, because that would not be appropriate given the different sentencing and legal regimes in each jurisdiction. However, as I indicated, there is a conversation to be had about the findings of this report and the clarity that it provides on the operation of CSUs, which is, of course, an issue that exists in the...
Naomi Long: On the latter point, there is rotation of officers. They serve time in the CSU, but they can rotate out of it. I met the officers who work in the CSU, and I found them to be incredibly motivated and very dedicated. They understand the complexities of the prisoners with whom they work, and, as I referenced, that was reflected in the inspector's comments in previous inspection reports. The...
Naomi Long: I have already addressed that question. I believe that people whose mental health issues are the primary cause of their offending are better off not in a custodial setting. Sadly, however, we often find that people arrive in our prisons because of failures of the system, be they in education, housing, health or another part of our system. Notwithstanding their mental health issues, they are...
Naomi Long: Of course, it will be difficult for the Prison Service staff. It is a difficult read for me as Minister, as it is for the director general. When we set standards in the Prison Service, we set high standards. As I said earlier, no one is referring to the Prison Service in the terms that they were in 2010 and 2011, and no one is referring to our prisons in the terms that they were during that...
Naomi Long: I thank the Member for his question and for his time as a member of the Independent Monitoring Board. I encourage other people to consider volunteering to the board because I think that it plays a hugely important and undervalued role in the oversight of what happens in prisons. Its ability to engage with me directly and with the director general about concerns is crucial. As you know, I...
Naomi Long: Thank you for the question. By way of context, in June 2021, CJINI and HMIP, in reporting on Ash House, noted that there was no CSU for women; they were simply kept in their cells in Ash House. That arrangement had an adverse impact on the other women in Ash House, so the Prison Service put considerable effort into developing and implementing an architect-designed CSU in Hydebank Wood, which...
Naomi Long: I thank the Member for his continued interest. Staff have been redeployed from other parts of prisons in order to enhance the staffing cover in CSUs. Of course, from his time on the Justice Committee, the Member will be aware that we routinely recruit new staff to deal with people who pass out of the Prison Service over time. However, there is no realistic opportunity for us to significantly...
Naomi Long: First, I thank my colleague for his remarks. It is important that we take the report seriously. I commissioned it specifically to get reassurance, not just for myself but those in our prisons, their families and, indeed, Members, that we were meeting minimum standards. Where we have fallen short of those minimum standards, it is right that we should apologise. More than that, it is right that...
Naomi Long: With respect, that is not what the report finds. Of course, it raises the issue of whether adequate records were kept in a format that satisfied the inspector, and we have accepted that that needs to be improved. The administration certainly needs to be improved, but you have to look at that in the context of previous reports. For example, the 2018 Maghaberry report said: "Staff managed...
Naomi Long: First, the director general of prisons has set up an implementation group and is working with it to identify the recommendations and how they will be implemented. That work is ongoing. As I said in my statement, when it comes to capital expenditure, I have asked the director general to review, in particular, the CSU at Maghaberry prison and its exercise yard to see what improvements may be...
Naomi Long: Most of the recommendations in the RQIA report fall to Health. In order to ensure that prisoners' privacy is protected, the information that the healthcare teams have would not be routinely shared with the Prison Service. However, we indicated at that time that we would work with our colleagues in the Department of Health to provide better standards. I am on record as saying that I am...
Naomi Long: I thank the Member for her question. It was the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust that made it clear that it would no longer fit prisoners for adjudication. The reason for that is simple: for it to do so would breach the Mandela rules. Therefore, when that became apparent, that no longer happened. The inspector's report suggested that that may need to be considered. Unfortunately, it...
Naomi Long: I thank the Chair of the Committee for his question and for his reflective remarks on the work that has been done by prison officers in what are incredibly complex cases. The issue in the report, as identified by the inspector, was more that we did not have an overall prison-wide strategy for CSUs that met the requirements that she would have set. However, there is a strategy on how we...
Naomi Long: First, my confidence that we were not contravening the rules was based on three previous CJINI reports, which said that we were not and raised no red flag on how CSUs were operated. It is also the case that, for example, the International Committee of the Red Cross visited the CSUs in the prisons and raised no red flag. Contrary to what the Member has said, the report does not say that "many...
Naomi Long: There are a number of parts to the Member's question. To be clear, at no stage did I row back from my apology to those who were held in conditions that did not meet the minimum standards. It is important that we place this in context and do not exaggerate the extent of the problem. We must base it on the report itself and not on conjecture that extends beyond it, because facts matter in these...
Naomi Long: At the outset, in welcoming the review, I thank the Chief Inspector for her work. The report, like the recently published Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) 'Review of Services for Vulnerable People Detained in Northern Ireland Prisons', is a significant piece of work, and I encourage Members to read all of it. Indeed, it is necessary to read the whole report to gain a full...
Naomi Long: First, I put on record my thanks to all the Members who have participated in the Consideration Stage debate. It is encouraging to see the degree of consensus in the Assembly for the legislation. I think that that reflects the seriousness of the issues at hand and the need for the law to respond better to them. In the context of the Bill, I want to send a clear message that stalking, in all...
Naomi Long: I will come back to your point in a second. Awareness raising and training will be critical so that the offences and stalking protection orders can be used as effectively as possible. We know from discussions with operational partners that planning of training packages is in progress. On the timescale for implementation, I am confident that the offences will come into force upon Royal Assent....
Naomi Long: My officials have already written to the Member and answered his concerns on that point. There is opportunity for the overturning of a stalking protection order where that is sought, because a person has the right to do it. No concerns about the way in which the clause is framed were raised by any of our justice partners or, indeed, by any of those who gave evidence to the Committee.
Naomi Long: I will in just a second. Our underpinning courts legislation is different, and the appeal mechanism need not appear in our Bill in the way in which it does in the English legislation. I will give way to the Committee Chair.