United Kingdom: England & Wales
Seen in the press
Read our selection of press reports about this country.
United Kingdom: seen in the press / 2023
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.
United Kingdom: seen in the press / 2022
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.
United Kingdom: seen in the press / 2021
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.
United Kingdom: investing in yet more prison places is not the way to cut crime
With the dismaying announcement that the government plans to fund 18,000 more prison places by 2026, we are forced to ask, once again, why crime prevention fails to get the same emphasis as punishment. Last Wednesday, the chancellor announced more than £4bn in capital funding – spread over four yea…Source — The Guardian
United Kingdom: Howard League exposes injustice of prison disciplinary system
Figures show that the number of formal hearings has risen to a record high. In a new briefing, the charity explores how rule-breaking in prisons in England and Wales is managed through formal disciplinary hearings, known as adjudications, where prisoners can be given punishments including solitary…Source — Ekklesia
United Kingdom: CT child advocate report, adult prison system is no place for minors
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…Source — The CT mirror
United Kingdom: speed up video calls rollout in prison to ease families’ lockdown anguish
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…Source — Prison Reform Trust
United Kingdom: lockdown conditions leave prisoners at risk of serving longer sentences
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…Source — Prison reform trust
United Kingdom: the disgraceful prisons expose ministers' refusal to learn from mistakes
The slow-motion collapse of England and Wales’ prison system is a textbook example of the government’s repeated public service failures in the age of austerity. The mismanagement of the prison estate, exposed in a scathing report from the Commons public accounts committee, is a carbon copy of minis…Source — The Guardian
United Kingdom: teenage killers could spend rest of their lives in prison after "life means life" shake-up
The government is planning to lower the age at which murderers can be jailed for life without parole from 21 to 18.Source — Sky news
UK: Children in detention may face Covid-19 restrictions until 2022, ‘It’s just too long’
Rules allowing up to 22 hours of solitary confinement for young offenders could continue, in move lawyers say is ‘very concerning’Source — The Guardian
UK: more than 140 freed inmates housed in hotels and B&Bs in lockdown
MoJ says hotels used as last resort to prevent homelessness and reduce coronavirus risk.Source — The Guardian
UK: lockdown report reveals HMP Maidstone inmates confined to cell for 23 hours a day with higher number of self-harm incidents
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…Source — KentOnline
UK: "A day in the life of a Prison Nurse"
My day starts at 07.30am, when we receive handover in a multipurpose room off one of the wings. It’s a Victorian prison: space is tight. A lone cockroach scuttles back into the safety of darkness. At night only cell doors are locked and it’s always odd to walk through open gates. After the night nu…Source — Nursingnotes
UK: trans and in prison during a pandemic, a rare glimpse behind bars
Overcrowded, confined spaces are a nightmare for the spread of coronavirus. This makes prisons a potential hotspot for the disease. Despite this, most researchers who study prisons have been locked out of them at this crucial time. In the UK, the prison and probation service has halted primary rese…Source — The Conversation
UK: over 1,000 prison leavers left homeless amid pandemic, MoJ figures show
More than 1,000 prisoners were released into homelessness at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales, figures show, prompting the government to increase funding for accommodation for prison leavers. Figures released to the Labour MP Lyn Brown show 840 men, 89 women and 85 young…Source — The Guardian
UK: Erlestoke Prison inmates self-harmed hundreds of times
Erlestoke Prison recorded hundreds of self-harm incidents among its inmates last year, figures show. Charity The Howard League for Penal Reform said numbers for England and Wales reveal the “sheer scale of human misery behind bars”. Ministry of Justice data recorded 263 self-harm incidents at HMP E…Source — Swindon Advertiser
UK: le système pénitentiaire traverse une grave crise, selon le Comité européen anti-torture
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
UK: prison officers punching compliant inmates, report says
Prison officers are allegedly punching compliant inmates who they suspect might misbehave in the future in a practice known as “preventive strikes”, a European human rights watchdog has said in a damning report on the state of jails in England. A delegation from the European Committee for the Preve…Source — The Guardian
UK: observing Ramadan in a UK prison
London, United Kingdom - In 2009, at the age of 18, Suleman was sent to HM Prison Glen Parva in the English midlands. One of the biggest challenges he faced while observing Ramadan was knowing what time the fast started and ended. “One thing you don’t have in prisons is a clock in your cell,” he to…Source — Aljazeera
UK: the role of online visits in supporting family contact
Following discussion with families who currently have a loved one in prison, Prison Reform Trust associate Sarah Beresford reflects on the role that allowing greater use of virtual visits could play in helping people in prison and their loved ones through the Covid-19 pandemic, and beyond. “Maybe t…Source — Prison Reform Trust
UK: concerns over level of self-harm at Durham Prison
CONCERNS have been raised about the level of self-harming in a “overcrowded’ North-East prison, to a new report looking at life behind bars. Durham’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) says while there had been significant decreases in the use of force at HMP Durham, from 612 in 2018 to 469 in 2019…Source — The Northern Echo
UK: why rehabilitation – not harsher prison sentences – makes economic sense
How should we treat convicted criminals? This is a matter of continuing public debate, and varies enormously across countries. Even within the so-called developed world, there are wide variations. The US, for example, imprisons more people per capita (over 700 per 100,000) than any other country in…Source — The conversation
UK: more fruit and veg for prisoners might just alleviate the crisis in our jails
With stories of tragic deaths, riots, audacious escapes, drug-fuelled violence and chronic staff shortages increasingly prevalent across the prison system, and the former head of the service claiming that the current crisis will take years to sort out, it might seem a strange time to call for more…Source — The Guardian