Offender Management Bill

I support the amendment. The idea of rehabilitation is at the back of what we are all trying to achieve, and to hear what conclusions the review has come to would be very helpful. I should like to draw attention to something I heard about when visiting Downview, a women’s prison. When one woman there had served a proportion of her sentence—it was very long, as far too many of the sentences given to women are—she was allowed to work in the local Asda. She did brilliantly and got a prize. It was filmed to show the potential of so many people who have been in prison. The real problem was that other branches of Asda, all around the country, still held the view that if someone had been to prison they were much too dangerous to be employed and that other people working in the store would not like it. There was no central direction on the issue from Asda. This is exactly where the Government, with all their influence, can play such an important role. They have done so already, with the list of employers they have got to join together to help with the rehabilitation scheme. The basis is there for the future. The example I have given struck me as a particularly good illustration of just how much prejudice there still is, and how much one needs to sell the idea that people can be reclaimed and rehabilitated after having been to prison. It is in everybody’s interests that that should happen.