News April 9, 2024 United Kingdom: third of prisoners released became homeless Almost a third of men released from Peterborough prison in the past year were made homeless due to insufficient housing support, a “worrying” inspection report found.
News April 4, 2024 United Kingdom: rethink on recalls will see 4,000 per year released early A change in the rules under which people are recalled to prison in England and Wales for breaching their licence conditions is expected to result in around 4,000 people a year being re-released earlier, the Ministry of Justice has revealed.
News March 22, 2024 United Kingdom: watchdog criticises Scotland’s prisons In a report to the United Nations, the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has urged Scottish ministers to increase the speed of revamping the country’s prisons and boost access to healthcare for those detained.
News March 19, 2024 United Kingdom: black prisoners at Wormwood Scrubs ‘disproportionately subjected to use of force’ The annual report of the Independent Monitoring Board found that from June 2022 to May 2023, black prisoners in Wormwood Scrubs were subjected to 43% of use-of-force incidents although they formed just 27% of the prison population.
News March 18, 2024 United Kingdom: pregnant women less likely to be sent to prison under new guidelines Pregnant women are now less likely to be sent to prison under new guidelines which will force courts to consider how jail time affects a woman who is either due to give birth or has recently had a baby.
News February 19, 2024 United Kingdom: all prison cells now have a phone According to the Prison Service, all 92 closed public-sector prisons in England and Wales will be fully fitted with phones by February 24.
News February 8, 2024 United Kingdom: women’s prisons more violent than ever In the year to September 2023 the 12 female jails in England saw 1,630 reported assaults, a 19 per cent increase on the previous year’s total and equating to 488 per 1,000 residents.
News February 5, 2024 United Kingdom: Scottish prison boss says 'we can't take any more' The head of the Scottish Prison Service Teresa Medhurst has said the jails are too full and she may soon have to say “enough is enough, we cannot take any more”.
News January 25, 2024 United Kingdom: prisoners with severe mental health needs spending months in isolation Independent Monitoring Board says jails in England using segregation too often as a way of managing detained people.
News January 19, 2024 United Kingdom: pregnant woman’s jail sentence quashed in ‘landmark’ ruling The court of appeal has quashed the prison sentence of a heavily pregnant woman so that she can give birth safely, in a case hailed as a landmark by campaigners.
News January 12, 2024 United Kingdom: “prison staff discouraged education” Andrew Malkinson, who served 17 years in jail as the victim of a wrongful conviction, has said that prison staff discouraged him from studying for a university degree.
News December 31, 2023 United Kingdom: trainee prison officers "encouraged to be more violent" Female graduate trainee prison officers have described a toxic and sexist culture where they were encouraged to be more violent as new figures show one in three on the scheme drop out.
News December 15, 2023 United Kingdom: "Ban on short sentences" will free up fewer than 1,000 prison places A reform which will see short sentences served in the community rather than in custody will have only a small impact on the prison capacity crisis, the Government has admitted.
News November 17, 2023 United Kingdom: inspectors find squalid conditions, spiralling self-harm and violence at Bedford Prison HM Inspector of Prisons says that conditions at HMP Bedford have deteriorated so sharply that they’ve had to issue an urgent notification for improvement.
News November 16, 2023 United Kingdom: poor support for rehabilitation may cause prison leavers to reoffend A report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found a significant decline in the quality of support given to prison leavers, which is predicted to increase the likelihood that prisoners will reoffend once released.
News October 25, 2023 United Kingdom: cells without toilets persist despite "slopping out" law Prisoners in some facilities forced to defecate in buckets overnight, a practice outlawed in 1996.
News October 9, 2023 United Kingdom: prison fails on inmate living conditions Dartmoor Prison is failing to provide adequate living conditions, education and work opportunities for its inmates, says an inspectors’ report.
News October 6, 2023 United Kingdom: over 100,000 children have parent in prison Record comes as Estonia confirms it is in talks with UK over plans to accept British prisoners amid overcrowding crisis
News September 29, 2023 United Kingdom: prisoners sleeping on matresses "wedged next to lavatories" due to overcrowding Inspector criticises “degrading” conditions in prisons in correspondence to Government
News September 18, 2023 United Kingdom: staff shortages an issue amid ‘deeply worrying’ prison deaths in England Inquests flag up gaps in the care of prisoners in relation to at least nine deaths in custody since 2021.
News September 18, 2023 United Kingdom: indefinite sentences should be suicide risk factor, says prisons watchdog Nine self-inflicted deaths of prisoners serving IPP sentences in 2022 was highest number since controversial introduction.
News September 18, 2023 United Kingdom: HMP Wakefield, calls for action over conditions at city’s high security jail Urgent action has been demanded over conditions at Wakefield’s high-security jail
News September 1, 2023 United Kingdom: jail housing Charles Bronson is "fundamentally unsafe", says watchdog ‘Urgent support’ needed over high levels of violence and drugs at understaffed HMP Woodhill
News July 24, 2023 Scotland: prisons criticised over handling of inmates in solitary confinement Inspectorate calls for urgent improvements, particularly in treatment of prisoners with mental health problems.