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<p>All Independent Monitoring Board annual reports for prisons are responded to by
Ministers. Those responses set out what has or will be done to address issues identified
by Boards. I wrote to the Chair of the Birmingham Board on 28 November 2016 in response
to the concerns raised in their report.</p><p> </p><p>The long-standing challenges
in our prison estate cannot be fixed overnight but the Justice Secretary and I are
absolutely committed to making prisons places of safety and reform. We already embarking
on a major recruitment drive to boost the frontline with 2,500 extra prison officers
and are putting in place new security measures to tackle drones, phones and drugs,
which undermine safety.</p>
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