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Seen in the press

Read our selection of press reports about this country.

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”.

News

January 25, 2024

United Kingdom: prisoners with severe mental health needs spending months in isolation

Independent Monitoring Board says jails in England using segregation too often as a way of managing inmates

News

January 19, 2024

United Kingdom: pregnant woman’s jail sentence quashed in ‘landmark’ ruling

The court of appeal has quashed the prison sentence of a heavily pregnant woman so that she can give birth safely, in a case hailed as a landmark by campaigners.

News

January 12, 2024

United Kingdom: “prison staff discouraged education”

Andrew Malkinson, who served 17 years in jail as the victim of a wrongful conviction, has said that prison staff discouraged him from studying for a university degree.

News

December 31, 2023

United Kingdom: trainee prison officers "encouraged to be more violent"

Female graduate trainee prison officers have described a toxic and sexist culture where they were encouraged to be more violent as new figures show one in three on the scheme drop out.

News

December 15, 2023

United Kingdom: "Ban on short sentences" will free up fewer than 1,000 prison places

A reform which will see short sentences served in the community rather than in custody will have only a small impact on the prison capacity crisis, the Government has admitted.

News

November 17, 2023

United Kingdom: inspectors find squalid conditions, spiralling self-harm and violence at Bedford Prison

HM Inspector of Prisons says that conditions at HMP Bedford have deteriorated so sharply that they’ve had to issue an urgent notification for improvement.

News

November 16, 2023

United Kingdom: poor support for rehabilitation may cause prison leavers to reoffend

A report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found a significant decline in the quality of support given to prison leavers, which is predicted to increase the likelihood that prisoners will reoffend once released.

News

October 25, 2023

United Kingdom: cells without toilets persist despite "slopping out" law

Prisoners in some facilities forced to defecate in buckets overnight, a practice outlawed in 1996.

News

October 9, 2023

United Kingdom: prison fails on inmate living conditions

Dartmoor Prison is failing to provide adequate living conditions, education and work opportunities for its inmates, says an inspectors’ report.

News

October 6, 2023

United Kingdom: over 100,000 children have parent in prison

Record comes as Estonia confirms it is in talks with UK over plans to accept British prisoners amid overcrowding crisis

News

September 29, 2023

United Kingdom: prisoners sleeping on matresses "wedged next to lavatories" due to overcrowding

Inspector criticises “degrading” conditions in prisons in correspondence to Government

News

September 18, 2023

United Kingdom: staff shortages an issue amid ‘deeply worrying’ prison deaths in England

Inquests flag up gaps in the care of prisoners in relation to at least nine deaths in custody since 2021.

News

September 18, 2023

United Kingdom: indefinite sentences should be suicide risk factor, says prisons watchdog

Nine self-inflicted deaths of prisoners serving IPP sentences in 2022 was highest number since controversial introduction.

News

September 18, 2023

United Kingdom: HMP Wakefield, calls for action over conditions at city’s high security jail

Urgent action has been demanded over conditions at Wakefield’s high-security jail

News

September 1, 2023

United Kingdom: jail housing Charles Bronson is "fundamentally unsafe", says watchdog

‘Urgent support’ needed over high levels of violence and drugs at understaffed HMP Woodhill

News

July 24, 2023

Scotland: prisons criticised over handling of inmates in solitary confinement

Inspectorate calls for urgent improvements, particularly in treatment of prisoners with mental health problems.

News

January 24, 2023

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.

News

January 11, 2022

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.

News

December 8, 2021

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.

News

December 8, 2020

United Kingdom: investing in yet more prison places is not the way to cut crime

The chancellor’s £4bn to imprison more criminals in England and Wales should be spent helping people live a life outside crime.

News

December 7, 2020

United Kingdom: Howard League exposes injustice of prison disciplinary system

The disciplinary system in prisons creates a pervasive sense of injustice, fuelling conflict and overcrowding and should be overhauled, the Howard League for Penal Reform reveals.

News

November 20, 2020

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…