John Battle Brings Video to Armley Prison

Armley Prison is the first prison in the country to use video conferencing to charge remand prisoners, ending the need for prisoner, police and magistrate to physically travel to court for charging.

“Using video conferencing to charge youngsters on remand in Armley Prison is an excellent idea,” said John Battle, Labour MP for Leeds West. “In the past the process of charging these youngsters took up the valuable time and resources of Pudsey police, Leeds courts and Armley prison staff. Speeding things up in this way seems to me like a good, practical, common-sense use of new technology and I am very glad that we have been able to pilot it here in Leeds.”

Home Secretary David Blunkett visited Armley Prison in August, with John Battle, and subsequently chose the prison for this national pilot.