Minister announces prison review team

2.27.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 21st Jun 2010

Justice Minister David Ford

Justice Minister David Ford today announced the composition of the team which will review the conditions of detention, management and oversight of prisons.

In a statement to the Assembly, the Minister said that the review presented an opportunity to look innovatively at the issues affecting prisons and to draw on best practice more widely.

The five person review team will be chaired by Dame Anne Owers, who is due to retire shortly as HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. She will be supported by Phil Wheatley, retired Director General of NOMS, Fergus McNeill, Professor of Criminology and Social Work at Glasgow University, Paul Leighton, former Deputy Chief Constable of the PSNI and Clodach McGrory, barrister and former Human Rights Commissioner, who is currently a Parole Commissioner and a Chairman of Appeal Tribunals.

Mr Ford said: "The Review team which I have assembled has a wide range of expertise and I trust that their deliberations will provide a route map for the future direction of the Prison Service. I envisage that their work will be undertaken in several stages, the first of which will include a review of the regime at Maghaberry Prison.

"Secondly, it will examine other issues identified in the Hillsborough Agreement, such as the replacement prison for Magilligan and the accommodation for women offenders. It will also consider wider issues pertaining to the Service, including the future composition of its workforce and its culture and ethos."

The review team will begin their work next month and the Minister has asked them to report to him in two stages, firstly in the autumn of 2010 and the second stage by early 2011.

In wishing the team well the Minister said: "I trust the work of these experts will enable us to achieve a new consensus on the role of custody and its management, as the Prison Service and the wider justice system emerges from the legacy of the past."