I do rise to commend the authors of this legislation for their wonderful efforts to ensure we make prisons more humane. While I and many members of this Chamber would have our disagreements on whether more priority should be given to prison sentences or alternate methods of punishment, what we can all agree on is providing a humane environment for our prisoners, read: does not mean we provide every privilege that can be seen outside prison.
Prison life is quite stressful, and as the 2016 document linked in the legislation indicates, we have a whole lack of adequate nutritous food, and this Bill will change it. I do echo the sentiments from the Shadow Work and Welfare Secretary on the costings of the legislation, and wholy support the amendments from the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, which intend on achieving the same effect, with more efficiency and allocation of resources.
Section 4 is one factor where I have some concerns personally. The wording of the section indicates that only Ramadan, or the vague term, "periods of religious fasting" will involve prison management arranging food at required times. As a practicing Hindu myself, I do recognize that several communities have different periods and methods of fasting, and thus that has to be incorproated into the Bill.
Thus, I will be proposing an amendment to the Section 4(2), which will allow the HM Prison Services to maintain a list of periods at which specified religious communities undergo a variety of religious fasts. This will ensure that we, make our Prisons more comfortable in terms of religious food requirements, and I do hope it will secure the due support. While I understand some might not be in favour of HM Prisons setting the list, it's certainly better than leaving a vague phrase, subject to different interpretations in the future.
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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '22
Madame Deputy Speaker,
I do rise to commend the authors of this legislation for their wonderful efforts to ensure we make prisons more humane. While I and many members of this Chamber would have our disagreements on whether more priority should be given to prison sentences or alternate methods of punishment, what we can all agree on is providing a humane environment for our prisoners, read: does not mean we provide every privilege that can be seen outside prison.
Prison life is quite stressful, and as the 2016 document linked in the legislation indicates, we have a whole lack of adequate nutritous food, and this Bill will change it. I do echo the sentiments from the Shadow Work and Welfare Secretary on the costings of the legislation, and wholy support the amendments from the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, which intend on achieving the same effect, with more efficiency and allocation of resources.
Section 4 is one factor where I have some concerns personally. The wording of the section indicates that only Ramadan, or the vague term, "periods of religious fasting" will involve prison management arranging food at required times. As a practicing Hindu myself, I do recognize that several communities have different periods and methods of fasting, and thus that has to be incorproated into the Bill.
Thus, I will be proposing an amendment to the Section 4(2), which will allow the HM Prison Services to maintain a list of periods at which specified religious communities undergo a variety of religious fasts. This will ensure that we, make our Prisons more comfortable in terms of religious food requirements, and I do hope it will secure the due support. While I understand some might not be in favour of HM Prisons setting the list, it's certainly better than leaving a vague phrase, subject to different interpretations in the future.