Richard Holden MP won the ballot for Justice Questions this week and pressed an issue he has been working on since he was elected - cutting drugs in Prisons.
It is right that people who commit serious crimes go to prison. But except in a few cases where people must rightly be held for the most serious crimes for the rest of their lives, Richard has made clear that where possible he wants to see prisoners able to be rehabilitated and come out ready to change. They can't do that if they're drug addicts and it's vital that we stop the supply of drugs into prisons.
Last year, Richard took Dame Cheryl Gillan's Private Member's Bill through Parliament on her behalf which extended the number of psychoactive substances (Spice, etc) that could be tested for, because sadly Dame Cheryl was suffering from terminal cancer and couldn't do so herself. You can read more about that here.
One of the technologies being utilised to help clamp down on drugs, phones and weapons being smuggled into prisons are 'full body scanners' and that's what Richard asked his question about.
Following his question, Richard said:
"I am glad to hear that the roll-out of these scanners is going well. They are really good at detecting people who have secreted things inside their bodies and have already stopped thousands of items being smuggled into prisons.
"I'll keep pushing the Government to do more in this area but it was good to hear that the roll-out is going well. It'll help rehabilitation and also help protect our prison officers from prisoners who take drugs and the violence they cause inside our prisons."