News September 6, 2024 United Kingdom: former top judges tell government to reverse sentence inflation Five of the former most senior judges have intervened in the debate over the prison population crisis to urge the government to reverse the trend of locking people up for longer – declaring that ‘radical solutions’ are required to tackle the prison population crisis.
News August 11, 2024 United Kingdom: overcrowding, drug misuse and violence, a journey through the prison system in numbers Prisons across the country are in a deep state of crisis – the extent of which is exposed by the latest statistics. Soaring rates of violence, self-harm and drug misuse have become widespread in overcrowded prisons in England and Wales. The prison population remains “within a few hundred places of…
News August 9, 2024 United Kingdom: government will not repay ‘bed and board’ deductions to all wrongfully imprisoned Some victims of historic miscarriages of justice have been told by the government that bed and board costs for the time they spent in prison will be deducted from their compensation payments. Miscarriage of justice victims say money taken from compensation payouts is additional punishment.
News July 12, 2024 United Kingdom: thousands of prisoners to be freed early to ease overcrowding The Labour government, which took power this past week, said it had been forced into the move because previous Conservative administrations had let the issue fester.
News July 11, 2024 United Kingdom: prison locked down with prisoners shut in cells as bosses battle 'near-tsunami' Prisoners at HMP Hindley have been locked in the cells as bosses battle a ‘near-tsunami’ of drugs. A friend of one prisoner told the Manchester Evening News lags hadn’t been allowed out for a shower or exercise for two days.
News July 4, 2024 United Kingdom: Governors call for prisoners to be released at 40% point Prisons will run out of space within days, putting the public at risk and endangering prisoners and staff, the Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) has warned in a letter to the leaders of all UK political parties. The PGA, which represents 95 per cent of prison governors, says that shortly even pol…
News June 12, 2024 Scotland: early release of prisoners to ease overcrowding backed by MSPs MSPs have voted in favour of releasing more than 500 prisoners early to address overcrowding in Scottish jails.
News June 10, 2024 Scotland: crisis-hit prisons 'risk breaching rights of inmates' Scottish prisons are in crisis and risk breaching inmates’ human rights, according to a new official report. Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee has called on the government to carry out an urgent review of the prison system. It follows recent warnings from within the service about overcrowding and a…
News June 3, 2024 Scotland: call for end to strip-searching of women in prison Women are still being routinely strip-searched in prison despite promises by Scottish ministers five years ago to reduce the practice, BBC News has found.
News May 20, 2024 United Kingdom: prisoners serving sentences with no clear end is a stain on British justice, it also amounts to torture Nearly 3,000 prisoners in England and Wales remain in jail under Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences today, and many others who have been released face the ongoing prospect of immediate recall to prison. They are experiencing a punishment that is inhumane and often amounts to psychol…
News May 20, 2024 United Kingdom: prison set up a 'rage room' for prisoners to 'let off steam' by smashing old wooden pallets Inmates at HMP Buckley Hall in Rochdale, Lancs, were given safety goggles and allowed to demolish the wooden structures with various implements. The ‘pallet-smashing workshop’ was praised by Charlie Taylor, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, for allowing prisoners to release their pent-up anger – and…
News April 30, 2024 United Kingdom: prisoners with cancer more likely to die of it than other patients A study has calculated that compared with cancer patients in the general population, patients in English prisons are 28% less likely to receive treatment for cancer, particularly surgery to remove tumours, and have a 9% increased risk of death – half of which is due to treatment differences.
News April 28, 2024 United Kingdom: new head of prisons’ union calls for urgent review of indefinite sentences Britain must properly fund prison system to ease current ‘impossible’ situation – or else change how we punish criminals, warns veteran governor.
News April 23, 2024 United Kingdom: why are there so many prisoners in England and Wales? More than 87,000 people are serving prison sentences, and the numbers are growing. But plans to cut the numbers being jailed may have little impact.
News April 18, 2024 United Kingdom: prison food made bowel disease worse, inquest told A prisoner who died of malnutrition repeatedly complained that prison food was making his Crohn’s disease symptoms worse, an inquest has heard.
News April 16, 2024 Scotland: prison population "abnormally high" Scotland’s prison population has reached its highest since 2020.
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”.