Tony Blair’s penal policy condemned – by Cherie
originally published: 3rd July 2009
Labour’s flagship policies on criminal justice have brought about a crisis in the prison system, a group of leading penal reformers headed by Cherie Booth QC has concluded.
In a radical report, the Commission on English Prisons Today calls for the closure of many prisons and a new direction in sentencing. The commission said that the National Offenders Management Service (Noms), established five years ago after a review led by Tony Blair’s office, was “ineffective” and should be dismantled.
Coroners and Justice Bill makes progress through parliament
originally published: July 2009
The Coroners and Justice Bill 2009 was published on 15th January 2009 and has been making its way through parliament. INQUEST has been working to ensure that the needs of bereaved people are at the forefront of parliamentarians’ minds.
INQUEST has published nine detailed briefings on the Bill and proposed amendments to it (which are available their website) and has been quoted widelyin the press:
Listening and learning: lessons from the sorry saga of Clause11
(The Times)
Comment:Coroner system is unfit for purpose
(Politics.co.uk)
Epidemic of self-harm sweeps women’s jails
originally published: 27th June 2009
The number of women deliberately harming themselves in prison has almost doubled in five years – despite repeated government promises to improve conditions in women’s jails.
Officials recorded 12,560 cases of women prisoners injuring themselves – mainly by cutting and burning – last year, equivalent to almost three incidents per inmate. In 2003, 6,437 instances of self-harm were recorded in English prisons, about 1.5 per inmate.
Although women make up just five per cent of the prison population in England and Wales, they account for more than half of all self-harming incidents.
Many of the women in prison have been convicted of minor crimes, but suffer high levels of mental illness and drug abuse. The largest number of incidents last year was in Eastwood Park prison, in Gloucestershire, where 2,584 were recorded, compared with 683 just five years earlier. High levels of self-harm also occurred in Styal, Cheshire (2,103 incidents last year), Holloway, north London (1,829), Bronzefield, west London (1,517) and Peterborough (1,337).
Paul Holmes, the Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, who obtained the figures, said: “It is nothing short of a disgrace how women are treated in our overcrowded penal system. It shows how desperate the situation is that the number of incidents has doubled.”
He said: “The issue of women in prison has been ignored for far too long. There are record numbers behind bars but no evidence of a corresponding rise in women committing more serious crime. “The Government must realise prison is not the right place for female offenders who pose no threat to the public.”
Control techniques left young offenders with broken wrists
originally published: 23rd June 2009
An urgent inquiry is being sought into the use of force by staff at a young offenders’ institution in Northumberland after 10 inmates in two years were left with serious injuries which included broken wrists.
The chief inspector of prisons, Dame Anne Owers, makes the call for an independent investigation into the use of “control and restraint” techniques at Castington YOI in her inspection report published today.
The report says that there were 364 “use of force” incidents at Castington last year, including 280 which involved the use of “control and restraint” techniques by staff on inmates aged 15 to 21.
“The number of times force was used was comparable to similar establishments. The principal concern in this area was the discovery that, over a two-year period, the use of control and restraint on young people had led to seven confirmed fractures and three suspected fractures,” says the chief inspector’s report of her inspection, which was carried out in January.
“Inspectors had never previously come across so many serious injuries sustained in this way. These incidents have been thoroughly investigated internally, but no coherent explanation had emerged from the scale and frequency of these injuries.”
