Bishop Rachel has spoken in the House of Lords in response to the Queen’s Speech.
She said, “I was perturbed that in relation to criminal justice the gracious [Queen’s] Speech referred only to keeping the streets safe. I urge Her Majesty’s Government to pay good attention to preventive and rehabilitative measures rather than simply creating more prison places. We are failing both victims and perpetrators of crime, and indeed society itself. I wonder what happened to the plans for a desperately needed royal commission on criminal justice. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act is not “job done”.”
“I will continue to say that sending to prison mothers whose non-violent offending is rooted in multiple disadvantages is failing communities and haemorrhaging money, with at least 500 new prison places for women, if they are planned to be additional. That now rather jaded female offender strategy could still do much good to prevent women entering the criminal justice system, yet it is stuck …”
Hansard: Full text of Bishop Rachel’s speech
VIDEO: watch the speech, in full:
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