United Kingdom
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
United Kingdom
Inquests flag up gaps in the care of prisoners in relation to at least nine deaths in custody since 2021.
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Mental health
Suicide
United Kingdom
Nine self-inflicted deaths of prisoners serving IPP sentences in 2022 was highest number since controversial introduction.
Europe
Material conditions
United Kingdom
Urgent action has been demanded over conditions at Wakefield’s high-security jail
Europe
Mental health
Torture
United Kingdom
Inspectorate calls for urgent improvements, particularly in treatment of prisoners with mental health problems.
Women
Europe
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Violence, acts of protest, prison conditions, justice reforms: find out what is new about prisons and justice in this country. Prison Insider monitors the press on a regular basis.
UK: finding an outlet
Testimonial
Europe
Access to legal rights
Discipline
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
United Kingdom
England and Wales are two constituent countries of the United Kingdom. While their health, justice and prison policies fall under common legislation, their prison health services differ.
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Overcrowding
Social ties
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
ICPR and Prison Insider asked several experts worldwide to share their insights in the framework of the project ‘Understanding and reducing the use of imprisonment in 10 countries’. Helen Mills discusses the vexed problem of short prison sentences.
Culture
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Activities
United Kingdom
“Being encased within steel and mortar shouldn’t alter the fundamental essence of a human being. Amid the brutality and apathy of the prison system, some find the ability to be creative” (Steeldoorstudios exposes the challenges of the creative process in prison.)
UK: different sides of a shared story
Interview
Coronavirus
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Social ties
United Kingdom
As the pandemic hit the UK, researchers were banned from entering prisons. The Prison Reform Trust remotely mobilised about 800 prisoners to share how the measures were affecting them. Prison Insider asked them three questions.
Europe
Overcrowding
Activities
Rehabilitation
Work
United Kingdom
The chancellor’s £4bn to imprison more criminals in England and Wales should be spent helping people live a life outside crime.
Minors
Europe
Access to legal rights
Discipline
Justice
Mental health
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
The disciplinary system in prisons creates a pervasive sense of injustice, fuelling conflict and overcrowding and should be overhauled, the Howard League for Penal Reform reveals.
Coronavirus
Minors
Europe
Access to legal rights
Mental health
Material conditions
United Kingdom
The 18-year-old didn’t want to be in jail, he told Department of Correction officials one day in 2019, as he covered the window in his cell with a sheet and mattress. He wanted to be with his family.
He was being held in a “Restrictive Housing Unit” at Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire, confined…
Coronavirus
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Social ties
United Kingdom
The rollout of secure video calls in prisons should be speeded up to ease the distress of families and their loved ones unable to see each other since the cancellation of social visits, a new briefing by the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) suggests.
Based on 278 contributions from families and prisoners…
Women
Europe
Access to legal rights
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
A new report from the Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison initiative exposes a failing system that leaves thousands of women released from UK prisons with £46, a plastic bag, nowhere to live and the threat of a return to custody if they miss their probation appointment.
The initiative is a collabor…
Pre-trial detention
Europe
Access to legal rights
Justice
Activities
Rehabilitation
Work
United Kingdom
Lockdown conditions in prisons have effectively ended opportunities for prisoners to take part in rehabilitation activities and progress in their sentences.
For the nearly 11,000 prisoners serving indeterminate sentences (9,000 unreleased; 2,000 recalled), this could lead to them spending significa…
Europe
Access to legal rights
Justice
Material conditions
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
From probation reform to test and trace, the government has presided over a catalogue of public services failures.
Coronavirus
Minors
Europe
Mental health
United Kingdom
Rules allowing up to 22 hours of solitary confinement for young offenders could continue, in move lawyers say is ‘very concerning’
Coronavirus
Europe
Social ties
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
MoJ says hotels used as last resort to prevent homelessness and reduce coronavirus risk.
Coronavirus
Europe
Mental health
United Kingdom
An inspection of a Kent prison during lockdown has revealed inmates have been confined to their cells for 23 hours a day and had no face-to-face contact with the outside world for at least 12 weeks.
The report has also highlighted a “self-inflicted death” at HMP Maidstone since the restrictions cam…