United Kingdom: England & Wales
Seen in the press
Read our selection of press reports about this country.
United Kingdom: speed up video calls rollout in prison to ease families’ lockdown anguish
The rollout of secure video calls in prisons should be speeded up to ease the distress of families and their loved ones unable to see each other since the cancellation of social visits, a new briefing by the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) suggests. Based on 278 contributions from families and prisoners…United Kingdom: lockdown conditions leave prisoners at risk of serving longer sentences
Lockdown conditions in prisons have effectively ended opportunities for prisoners to take part in rehabilitation activities and progress in their sentences. For the nearly 11,000 prisoners serving indeterminate sentences (9,000 unreleased; 2,000 recalled), this could lead to them spending significa…UK: lockdown report reveals HMP Maidstone inmates confined to cell for 23 hours a day with higher number of self-harm incidents
An inspection of a Kent prison during lockdown has revealed inmates have been confined to their cells for 23 hours a day and had no face-to-face contact with the outside world for at least 12 weeks. The report has also highlighted a “self-inflicted death” at HMP Maidstone since the restrictions cam…UK: trans and in prison during a pandemic, a rare glimpse behind bars
Overcrowded, confined spaces are a nightmare for the spread of coronavirus. This makes prisons a potential hotspot for the disease. Despite this, most researchers who study prisons have been locked out of them at this crucial time. In the UK, the prison and probation service has halted primary rese…UK: Erlestoke Prison inmates self-harmed hundreds of times
Erlestoke Prison recorded hundreds of self-harm incidents among its inmates last year, figures show. Charity The Howard League for Penal Reform said numbers for England and Wales reveal the “sheer scale of human misery behind bars”. Ministry of Justice data recorded 263 self-harm incidents at HMP E…UK: le système pénitentiaire traverse une grave crise, selon le Comité européen anti-torture
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UK: the role of online visits in supporting family contact
Following discussion with families who currently have a loved one in prison, Prison Reform Trust associate Sarah Beresford reflects on the role that allowing greater use of virtual visits could play in helping people in prison and their loved ones through the Covid-19 pandemic, and beyond. “Maybe t…UK: concerns over level of self-harm at Durham Prison
CONCERNS have been raised about the level of self-harming in a “overcrowded’ North-East prison, to a new report looking at life behind bars. Durham’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) says while there had been significant decreases in the use of force at HMP Durham, from 612 in 2018 to 469 in 2019…UK: why rehabilitation – not harsher prison sentences – makes economic sense
How should we treat convicted criminals? This is a matter of continuing public debate, and varies enormously across countries. Even within the so-called developed world, there are wide variations. The US, for example, imprisons more people per capita (over 700 per 100,000) than any other country in…UK: concern over segregated transgender women prisoners
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…UK: 'our prison deradicalisation programmes aren't working'
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…UK: women released from prison nearly three times less likely to be in employment on release than men
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%).