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
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.
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.
28th August 2007
A Guardian/ICM poll published today overturns the assumption that the public think tough prison sentences are the best way to tackle crime. It shows that a majority of voters think the government should scrap its prison building programme and find other ways to punish criminals.
27th August 2007
Thousands of crime suspects are to be housed in flats and houses in cities around England and Wales while awaiting trial, in an emergency measure to ease prison overcrowding.
26th August 2007
Controversial prison sentences which have been criticised by the High Court should be "fundamentally reformed", a human rights organisation has said.
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.