MP: Were jail leaders paid and asleep?
WEST Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper has again taken her quest for answers over the squalid conditions at HMP Liverpool to Westminster.
Inspectors described conditions at the Walton prison as the ‘‘worst they’d ever seen’’ after visiting late last year.
The prisons watchdog investigation found that it was plagued by rats and flooded with illicit drugs.
The prison’s bosses were blasted in the report for and “abject failure to offer a safe, decent and purposeful environment”.
Ms Cooper has repeatedly demanded answers over the squalid conditions and took the opportunity to question Justice minister Rory Stewart in the House of Commons on Tuesday, January 23.
After asking for Mr Stewart’s assessment on the conditions - which he described as “really shocking” - she called for answers on who would be held to account.
The Labour MP said: “These appalling conditions did not emerge overnight. Who will be held to account locally and nationally for failing to implement the recommendations of the many critical reports about the prison? How in 21st century Britain could this national disgrace be allowed to happen? Lack of adequate healthcare meant that lives were lost.
“What happened to the regulators and the leadership? Were they being paid while asleep?”
Responding, Mr Stewart said: “Those are important questions that we will look at closely. We have published an action plan for Liverpool prison. There are two key things we need to do. The first is about leadership. The governor has now been replaced. The second is that we have put in place a new urgent notification process, so if anything like this happens again and inspectors raise it, we will be forced to reply within 28 days.
“But that is only the beginning, because this requires a complete change in culture that focuses on getting back to basics: cleaning the prison, reducing the violence, reducing the drugs and making sure the healthcare provision is in place.”
However, despite the assurances that the change of leadership would help the hospital, it has since been revealed that the displaced governor, Peter Francis, has actually moved to a new role wihin the prison service’s Directorate of Security, Order and Counter Terrorism.
Last week the new governor, Pia Sinha, said conditions had been “unacceptable” but that improvements had already been made.