Debate contribution: Speech and Language Therapy: Criminal Justice System

Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on 20 February 2024.

MLA

Mr Robbie Butler

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

20 February 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Speech and Language Therapy: Criminal Justice System

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4381134

Read the official Assembly record

Text

My name is on the motion, but I was not minded to speak on it, because my leader and Mike Nesbitt, who will make the winding-up speech, are passionate about it. However, I have listened to the debate with great interest — I thank every Member who has participated in it — and it would be remiss of me, given my experience as a former prison officer and my interest in children and young people, not to speak in the debate. On the purpose of the motion, I will start with the analogy of separating the ideas of putting fires out and stopping fires starting. The motion deals specifically with putting fires out as opposed to prevention. People have spoken eloquently and rightly in the debate, and they have intertwined that with the need to get upstream to stop our young people falling into difficulties with the criminal justice system. One quantifiable element of that is the barriers that some young people find in their inability to communicate effectively or, indeed, be understood. We are talking today about those who, unfortunately, are known to the criminal justice system. That being the case, I want to strip out a number of areas that explain why the debate is so important. I will start with prison staff, and, as a former prison officer, I make no excuse for that. I will paint a picture, and I will do it every time for the people who work in our prisons. It is probably the most difficult job that I have ever done, and being an MLA is a difficult job that brings pressures every day, including expectation and so on. I want Members to picture this, because this is what it is like to work in a prison. You work in a combative, highly charged environment where there are lots of pressures on you, including from a system that demands that you are there to protect and look after the people in the prisons. There are the complex characters who are navigating a difficult point in their lives. It is difficult work being a prison officer, and that is compounded, at times, by the system. One of the biggest pressures on staff is staff numbers, which have been reduced since I was a prison officer in the late 1990s. The impact of that is a failure to effectively rehabilitate inmates.

Absolutely.

Thank you very much; I appreciate that. I thank the Member for his intervention. The reality is that, if you work there, it impacts on you too. Some of the prisons are old and archaic. They are not therapeutic environments, and it is the same for the staff. That is why it is important that, particularly on committal, the prison population, whether young offenders or prisoners, is assessed across the ambit of conditions, one of which is speech and language. That will open so many doors. I have an example of where there was a failure. I cannot remember what year it started, but, in Hydebank Wood, an initiative was started by, I think, Governor Treacy a number of years back. It involved early identification of ADHD, then awareness for young people, awareness for the staff and support. It was fantastic and was a game changer, but, unfortunately, probably due to budgets — it was nobody's intention — the project was pulled even though it was having a measurable effect. If we are serious about making conditions better for the people who find themselves there, we will do it on committal. We will do it at the earliest chance that we get, namely when people come in. It is not just about speech and language, although that is the issue that we are talking about today. Why else do we do it? We do it for the staff. We also, obviously, do it for the young offender or, indeed, the prisoner. It is easy to understand the piece, and people have talked about rehabilitation being the answer to reoffending, but I will paint another picture for you. One of the saddest things that I witnessed when I worked in the prison was the families who visited the people who were in prison, particularly the kids. There is an unfortunate trend — not often, but it is not unusual — where kids follow their parents into the system. If we can get the communication barriers lifted, not just for the system but within the families, what change can we bring to a family to prevent that familial, cyclical process? What does that not do for the family structure? Finally, what is the societal benefit? The Minister will know well that prisons and the criminal justice system are some of the hardest places in which to generate money and investment, because, sometimes, society may not look kindly on those who find themselves in prison. However, if there is a root-and-branch approach to this, we take the opportunity that this gives — the motion gives us the early genesis of it — and we take rehabilitation seriously and see this as a fundamental seed in reversing the trend of ever-growing prison numbers, it is perhaps something that we can all rally behind. I want to leave you with something. It is twofold. There are two things that we are trying to do here, and we will have many more discussions about what we can do for young people and rightly so. However, for the people who are already known to the criminal justice system, the fire has, unfortunately, already started. It is our job to put that fire out.

934 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not qualifying

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:42 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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