1st March 2008
More than one in a 100 adult Americans are now in prison, a higher rate of incarceration than at any time in US history that is pushing the budgets of several states to breaking point, a report warns. Last year, all 50 states between them spent $44 billion on running their prisons.
24th February 2008
Britain's overfilled jails are at 'panic stations' as they lurch from crisis to crisis, the chief inspector of prisons warns in an Observer interview today that will make uncomfortable reading for the government.
24th September 2007
The growing number of women taking their own lives while in prison will be highlighted this week when a leading campaigner is put on trial for protesting outside a jail.
23rd September 2007
The government was accused last night of presiding over a 'shambolic penal policy' after it emerged it is to dismantle its multibillion pound flagship programme to protect the public and cut crime.
21st September 2007
There were around 600 deaths in custody in England and Wales last year, a third of them suicides, according to a report published today.
17th September 2007
Governors should give inmates access to computers in their cells, says Erwin James
16th September 2007
The use of a heroin substitute as a recreational drug is spreading across Britain's prison system 'like wildfire', according to new research. In some prisons as many as 70 per cent of inmates regularly take Subutex illegally, the research found, and many former offenders are returning to civilian life with a taste for the drug.
2nd September 2007
'They can shove their offer up their arse.' So concluded one local union leader addressing striking prison officers, who cheered wildly at this Prescottian flourish. And then it struck me: how surprised should we be that prisoners, entrusted to the care of such people, so manifestly fail to reform while inside?
30th August 2007
Overcrowded jails, poor pay, Prison Service legal actions against the union, a majority of prisoners with mental and drug problems, and the risks of assault from an increasingly disgruntled prison population. These are just a few of the many grievances held by Britain's prison officers that led to yesterday's sudden strike action.
30th August 2007
The work is far from glamorous and brutal misconduct is not unknown among those who carry it out. So when prison officers yesterday embarked on a wildcat strike they were poorly placed to win the sympathy that met the Fire Brigades Union when it took on the government in 2002. Indeed, the Prison Officers Association (POA) received a very hostile reaction from several quarters, starting with the high court, which did not take long to rule its action illegal.
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.