Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

March 26, 2020

UK: more fruit and veg for prisoners might just alleviate the crisis in our jails

News

Europe Health United Kingdom

Poor diet is contributing to bad behaviour and reoffending. Liz Truss could should intervene and do for prisons what Jamie Oliver did for schools

March 26, 2020

UK: concern over segregated transgender women prisoners

News

Women Europe Violence United Kingdom

The segregation of a jail’s transgender women prisoners for “long periods” has been noted as a concern by a watchdog. The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) also had “serious concerns” about the lack of rehabilitation courses, and of women facing homelessness on release from HMP Eastwood Park. It p…

March 18, 2020

UK: Coronavirus (COVID-19) prison preparedness

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Coronavirus Europe Health United Kingdom

Minister of State Lucy Frazer QC MP has made a statement on preparedness to deal with coronavirus (COVID-19) in prisons.

March 11, 2020

UK: MoJ challenged to release details of child restraint in prisons

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Europe Minors United Kingdom

A children’s rights charity is challenging the refusal of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to release information showing the reasons why children in prison have suffered pain-inducing restraint, the Guardian has learned.

March 9, 2020

UK: 'our prison deradicalisation programmes aren't working'

News

Europe Discipline Justice Religion United Kingdom

The British prison system currently deals with high-security terrorism convicts by sending them to dispersal prisons. These prisoners are distributed around six maximum security dispersal jails and are regularly moved from one to another. This is done to prevent them from establishing close relatio…

February 27, 2020

UK: women released from prison nearly three times less likely to be in employment on release than men

News

Women Europe Rehabilitation United Kingdom

A new briefing, Working It Out, published today by the Prison Reform Trust and Working Chance, reveals that fewer than one in 20 women (4%) were in employment six weeks after release from prison, compared with over one in 10 men (11%).

February 27, 2020

UK: psychoactive drugs linked to 95% of jail's ambulance callouts

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Europe Health Drugs United Kingdom

Paramedics were called 200 times in six months to a prison in West Yorkshire to deal with medical incidents linked to drugs like spice, an inspection has revealed.

February 7, 2020

UK: Oakhill STC sees 27 staff investigated over abuse and neglect in last three years

News

Europe Minors Violence United Kingdom

Police have investigated 27 members of staff at a single secure training centre (STC) in relation to allegations of abuse or neglect of young people held there in the past three years, it has emerged.

November 22, 2019

UK: pregnant in prison: 'I could feel the blood but didn’t put the light on to see'

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Europe United Kingdom

Polly cried for help when she began bleeding heavily in her cell, but no one answered

November 22, 2019

UK: pregnancy and childbirth in prison: what do we know?

News

Europe United Kingdom

Following the recent death of a baby born in prison, Miranda Davies presents new findings on the plight of pregnant prisoners – a group whose health needs are not currently being met.

November 16, 2019

UK: prison violence cut after cons given 99p earplugs for a good night's sleep

News

Europe Violence United Kingdom

Lags are calmer after a silent night’s sleep, thanks to earplugs which block out snoring, loud TVs and other noises at Buckley Hall prison in Rochdale, Lancs

November 13, 2019

UK: security firm to monitor prisoner vulnerability at Kilmarnock Prison in bid to prevent suicide and self harm

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Europe Mental health Suicide United Kingdom

Changes in behaviour are highlighted to prison officers – allowing them to intervene before a prisoner self-harms or attempts suicide.

November 5, 2019

UK: HMP Cardiff 'bucks trend' on rising violence

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Europe Violence United Kingdom

Cardiff prison disproves clichés that inner-city Victorian jails are “places of squalor, violence and despair”, the chief inspector of prisons has said.

November 1, 2019

UK: mental health act: calls to end "horrific" detention of young people with autism

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Europe Health Mental health United Kingdom

“It has been left to the media and desperate, anguished parents to expose the brutal reality of our system of detention of people with learning disabilities or autism.“

October 22, 2019

UK: ageing prison population "sees officers working as carers"

News

Europe United Kingdom

The ageing jail population has left prison officers providing care for a growing number of older inmates “dying in front of them”, officers have said.

October 13, 2019

UK: high-security prison opens up to visits from autistic children

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Europe Social ties United Kingdom

Maghaberry near Belfast houses republican and loyalist paramilitaries plus life sentence murderers behind its razor-wire fences and high walls.

October 12, 2019

UK: prison officers told to knock on cell doors to make youth detention "child friendly"

News

Europe United Kingdom

Prison officers have been told to knock before entering the cells of young inmates in order to make youth detention centres “more child friendly”.

October 10, 2019

UK: self-inflicted deaths rise in prisons in England and Wales

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Europe United Kingdom

Watchdog also finds drug use continues to plague jails despite agreed action plans.

October 4, 2019

UK: baby dies in prison after inmate "gives birth alone in cell"

News

Europe United Kingdom

Police are investigating the death of a baby in Britain’s largest female prison after an inmate gave birth alone in her cell at night.

September 7, 2019

Ireland: ex-Dundee United player raises the bar helping inmates in Dublin prison project

News

Europe United Kingdom

Leaving Mountjoy, Allardice stops to comment on a garden the prisoners tend. He said if people on the outside knew what went on beyond the negative headlines they would think twice.

September 5, 2019

UK: with parents in prison, kids at risk for lasting psychiatric problems

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Europe Mental health United Kingdom

Children who have a parent in prison may be more than twice as likely as other kids to have depression, attention problems and conduct disorders by the time they reach adolescence, a U.S. study suggests.

September 3, 2019

UK: Big rise in assault and self-harm incidents at Highpoint Prison prompts call for the number of people in prison to be reduced

News

Suicide United Kingdom

Incidents of assault and self harm at Highpoint prison have risen in recent years, amid warnings that England and Wales’ prisons have been asked “to do too much with too little for too long”.

September 3, 2019

UK: full Sutton prison inmates handed hundreds of extra days behind bars for breaking rules

News

United Kingdom

Full Sutton Prison inmates were handed hundreds of extra days behind bars for breaking rules last year, new figures reveal.

September 3, 2019

UK: Haverigg prison to become "open prison" and double in size

News

Facilities United Kingdom

HMP Haverigg is set to double in size after becoming an open prison, Ministry of Justice bosses have announced.