‘Government took drastic action in prisons’ – minister
APPROXIMATELY 2,500 to 3,500 deaths could have occurred in prisons had “drastic” lockdown measures not been taken following the coronavirus outbreak, justice minister Lucy Frazer has said.
Her comments came as shadow justice secretary
David Lammy warned
“those in youth offender institutions remain locked up in their cells for almost the whole day without any access to education”.
Speaking during Commons Justice questions, Mr Lammy said: “As the Government prioritises returning children to school, will she
(the minister) give me a date by which she expects all children in custody will have access to education, activities, family and professional visits?”
Ms Frazer replied: “He is right to identify that, in the youth estate, like in the adult estate, we took severe measures when we realised we were facing a pandemic and we took those measures to save lives.
“We were looking at 2,500 to 3,500 deaths across the estate and so we took drastic action that we considered very carefully which resulted, he is right to say, in a severe lockdown. And the result of that, although every death is tragic, we have only suffered 23 deaths in our prison estate.”
She added: “I am pleased to say that time out of cell has increased as the lockdown has continued and in YOIs children are now let out between two and three-and-a-half hours every day.”
Ms Frazer said “unprecedented action” following the Covid-19 outbreak had “saved lives” but had “required the temporary suspension of classroom education”.