26.
asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to monitor and require the use of prisoner control units in Her Majesty's prisons; and if he will make a further statement on control units.
We have nothing to add to the reply my right hon. Friend gave to the Question from my hon. Friend the Member for Derby, North (Mr. Whitehead) on 17th July.—[Vol. 895, c. 574.]
May I point out that as originally printed the Question contains a mistake and that the word "require" should be "restrain"? May I suggest that the answer is not satisfactory, in that there are considerable misgivings about the use of these units? The brainwashing and psychological control implications of them are wholly alien to this country's traditions in the prison service, and it is up to the Government to stop them now.
There is one other error in the Question, in that it is not right to refer to "control units". There is only one unit in operation, and that is at Wakefield. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that an active review is now taking place of the whole matter of the control unit. It has not been operating for many months. I myself have visited it. I assure the hon. Gentleman that every aspect will be considered—not only the question of control, and who is in charge of individual prisoners; we are also assessing the prisoners during their stay at the control unit and when they have left it.
Will the Under-Secretary of State say what improvements there have been, if any, in the discipline and good order of those prisons from which the disruptive prisoners have been taken? Will she also say what has been the psychological effect on prisoners who have been put into the control unit?
This is one of the matters which are being examined. The psychology department at Wakefield is collecting information with a view to assessing the behaviour and response of the very few prisoners involved.