THEY say, to paraphrase, that you can tell the strength of a country’s democracy by how it treats its prisoners. 

That’s why I have always had some doubts about the US, because it is quite prepared to let many rot on death row for decades.

One of the roles of an MP is to visit prisons, and sometimes to meet constituents there. 

It’s a responsibility that I’ve always taken seriously. 

I recently, for example, went to Eastwood Park, the women’s prison which though just outside of the Stroud Constituency has had a long relationship with this part of the world, some of the staff coming from here, and prisoners being resettled into our area.

My reason for the visit was to check up on a particular case that has been taken up by a constituent, but also to get a feel for how the prison estate has suffered under austerity. 

One aspect that I found out about was that the Mother and Baby Unit, which I saw open nearly twenty years ago, has been left unrepaired and therefore unusable for the last year as a result of a flood. 

This has meant that any young mother with child, or expectant, from the whole of the South West and South Wales could not be situated anywhere in the region. 

I immediately took this issue up via a Parliamentary Question and have been assured that action is now imminent, albeit trying to rectify what is a totally unsatisfactory situation.

I used to make my visits with someone who was chair of the Prison Visitors at Gloucester Prison. 

Sadly Tony is no longer with us – he was a marvellous man giving years of his life to the rights of prisoners to help oversee the gaol and to do what he could to progress issues such as resettlement, so important if people are not to face the revolving doors of coming straight back to incarceration. 

That’s why probation is so important, and I’ve struck up another relationship with someone who is working as a volunteer for the resettlement service in the community.

Sadly what John has discovered is that the current situation is near crisis, but I’ll say more about that in a later column.

Short-term we need to do much more to keep individuals out of prison. 

That’s why I’m a strong supporter of restorative justice so admirably led by Mary Brown in the form of Positive Justice Gloucestershire. 

If you haven’t heard about this group go onto its website and find out about the alternatives to prison and why this matters.

David Drew

MP for the Stroud Constituency