Debate contribution: Prisons: Remand Population
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 19 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Prisons: Remand Population
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5795890
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The task and finish group is considering prioritising a number of cases for review. For example, it is looking at defendants who could be managed in the community through the use of bail if there were additional controls such as electronic monitoring. It is also looking at reviewing cases where defendants have been on remand for a very long period of time and are awaiting sentencing. Those decisions will, quite rightly, be subject to a risk assessment and review by the courts because, ultimately, it is for the courts to decide whether people are remanded in custody or are bailed. Many of the people on remand are not given bail because, for example, they do not have a steady address that they can be bailed to rather than the fact that they are a direct risk to public safety. We need to ensure that our prisons are focused on ensuring that they provide the capacity for those who are a direct risk to public safety rather than, essentially, holding people who would otherwise be homeless. I think that that is a real challenge for the entire system.
187 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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