The national body which conducts reports into prison standards, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), has recently made available its latest report on its annual inspection of HMP Leyhill, South Gloucestershire which was inspected earlier this year.
The body which is charged with reporting annually to the Minister of Justice on how well the prison has met the standards and requirements placed on it and what impact these have on those in its custody, noted that the Category D male Prison has made good progress but raised specific concerns in some areas.
Local MP Luke Hall in response to the report, has now directly raised the IMB’s questions with the Prisons Minister Andrew Selous MP asking for his comments and response to 5 questions inspectors had poised to the Department for Justice.
In the letter to Prisoners Minister, following on from a previous letter of concern over absconding from the open prison, Local MP Luke Hall requested the minister’s thoughts on the issues raised by the report. The issues raised range from questions over the action the Government will now take after changes to the conditions for inmates on release on temporary licence (ROTL) has seen a reduction in inmate’s rehabilitative employment in the community to concerns over inmate’s conditions as a result of boiler issues at the prison.
Luke hall MP said; “I am pleased to be able to take up the findings of the latest report with the Minister so we can ensure that our local area sees the long term benefits of improvements in the standards set of HMP Leyhill. It is particularly important that the rehabilitative aspect of Leyhill is effective, given attention and set at a high standard to reduce re-offending and keeping the public safe”