HMP La Moye child visits (FOI)

​Request 

I am researching the number of children affected by a parent’s imprisonment.

I am looking for statistics as follows:

A

The number of child visits to La Moye Prison on an annual basis?

B

The number of inmates that are parents? Broken into male & female.

C

Any other relevant statistics?

Clarified request

A

The number of children (defined under 18) visited the prison during the calendar year in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 (up to 31 August 16).

B

Using the same time period, how many parents were incarcerated at these times. Of which how many were male or female?

C

Are there any publicly shared statistics created by the prison annually?

Response

A

While it may be possible to answer the question, it has been determined that the information you require is exempt under Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, as it is estimated that it will take in excess of 12.5 hours to collect the information.

However, the Prison Service is able to provide the data for 1 year within the 12.5 time limit:

• 1 July 2015 to 31 December 2015: 875 visits from children, undertaken by 97 individuals

• 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2016: 734 visits from children, undertaken by 67 individuals

Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011

Article 16     A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1)     A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

B

Prisoners are not required to disclose whether or not they are a parent.

Consequently, the Prison Service is not in a position to accurately state how many prisoners in custody are parents at any point in time, as this information is not held.

Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011

Article 10   Obligation of scheduled public authority to confirm or deny holding information

(1)     Subject to paragraph (2), if –

(a)     a person makes a request for information to a scheduled public authority; and

(b)     the authority does not hold the information,

          it must inform the applicant accordingly.

C

The States of Jersey Prison Service produces an annual report. Reports are available from 2007 onwards.

Community & Constitutional Affairs Reports - Prison Annual Reports 2007 to 2014

Various years can be viewed by using the “filter by year”.

Prison Annual Report 2015 on the States Assembly website

The States of Jersey Prison Service Annual Report for 2016 will be published by the second quarter of 2017.