One in Five Kent Prisoners have keys to their own cells

Gareth Johnson, MP for Dartford, has today criticised a policy allowing many prisoners keys to their own cells. He has uncovered shocking figures that 1,153 prisoners in the Kent area have a key enabling them to control access to their own prison cell.

Gareth heavily criticised the measure, commenting that ‘prisoners having their own keys sends out the wrong message to the victims of crime’.

The matter was raised after a Parliamentary Question revealed the full extent of key allocations in Kent’s prisons. Out of a maximum prison capacity in Kent County of around 5000 (allowing some flexibility in numbers for the Dover Immigration Centre, which straddles two counties), a total of 1,153 prisoners hold keys. If all Kent prisons were currently at full capacity, this would mean that over 1 in 5 prisoners in Kent have keys to their own cells. The figures suggest that it is not just prisoners in ‘Open Prisons’ who have a key to operate their cell area.

Gareth commented that;

“The practice of prisoners using their own keys sends out completely the wrong message to the victims of crime. I accept that security is not compromised and that the policy has practical benefits for prison officers and prisoners. That benefit, in my view, is outweighed by the detrimental impact this policy has on the victims of crime. The purpose of prison is to limit liberty and to reassure victims, so there is something very disturbing about prisoners having their own keys”

ENDS

Notes for editors:

The full text of the Parliamentary Question can be found using the following link:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2012-07-16a.117227.h&s=speaker%3A24803#g117227.q0

Statistics for the above information can be found at the following links:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2008-03-25b.23.0&s=prison+key+speaker%3A11816#g23.2

http://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/prison-finder/Kent-and-Sussex

The prison service has said;

"The availability of courtesy keys to appropriately selected prisoners does not represent any risk to security. They are provided to prevent other prisoners from entering the cell of a prisoner when he or she is not present. Courtesy locks have been in use since 1991 and are now frequently fitted as standard.

"Courtesy keys such as these, which are used only for living quarters, are entirely different from security keys which are used to secure cell doors and for the perimeter of the prison and controlling internal access and movement. The cell door is fitted with a separate security lock and the courtesy lock can be overridden by staff. Prisoners cannot lock staff out of cells and prisoners cannot unlock cell doors that staff have locked."