Violence inside prisons in England and Wales is at its most serious level ever

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Pentonville stabbing is 'most extreme example of prison safety decline'

Chair of the parole board warns prisons in England and Wales are feeling the effects of losing thousands of extra staff in past few years

Alan Travis Home affairs editor Thursday 20 October 2016 19.36 BST

Violence inside prisons in England and Wales is at its most serious level ever and is getting worse, the new chair of the parole board has warned.

Prof Nick Hardwick said that the stabbing inside Pentonville prison on Monday was “the most extreme example of the decline in safety” that he and others have warned about for years.

In his Howard League Parmoor lecture, he says that without “a very substantial increase in staffing levels” ambitious government plans to improve rehabilitation and education or tackle extremism “are simply not achievable”.

He welcomed a £14m scheme to recruit 400 extra staff at the 10 worst prisons, which was announced two weeks ago by the justice secretary Liz Truss. But he added: “It does not compensate for the thousands of extra staff who have been taken out of prisons over the last few years and I am afraid a lot more than 10 prisons are in trouble.

“The meaning of the increase in suicides, assaults and murders we are seeing now is not just the awful consequences for the prisoners, staff and families involved but the evidence they provide of a loss of control of our prisons.”

Hardwick, who is the former chief inspector of prisons, said Truss and her justice ministers fully understand the gravity of the situation and the need for a very substantial increase in staffing.

“The 400 extra staff must be just the first immediate step,” he said. “The problem is now of such a scale, and the resources required to address it so significant, that it will take a government-wide commitment to address it in the next spending round. And whether government as a whole understands the problem I don’t know.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/20/pentonville-stabbing-is-most-extreme-example-of-prison-safety-decline

You have to be pretty dangerous to go to prison these days Syl...

eddie wrote:

Miffs2 wrote:We also need to be mindful that most of those prisoners are going to freed and back in society at some point

Which is one reason why they need rehabilitating surely?

Of course, which is why the throw them in jail to rot approach, whilst attractive to the public, is ultimately going to cause more crime and more victims

Tommy Monk wrote:

You have to be pretty dangerous to go to prison these days Syl...

Or mentally ill, stupid, naive, easily manipulated, etc etc.
But even the dangerous should be treated with some sort of dignity imo. Locking anyone up 24/7 in solitary confinement would make the ones who could be rehabilitated dangerous, and the already dangerous worse.....and we as a society will eventually have them back in our midst.

Syl wrote:

Tommy Monk wrote:

You have to be pretty dangerous to go to prison these days Syl...

Or mentally ill, stupid, naive, easily manipulated, etc etc.
But even the dangerous should be treated with some sort of dignity imo. Locking anyone up 24/7 in solitary confinement would make the ones who could be rehabilitated dangerous, and the already dangerous worse.....and we as a society will eventually have them back in our midst.

I agree there are some offenders that can never be released simply because they've become institutionalised and can longer integrate at the pace of a modern world, they cannot keep up and they can without observation become a violent threat to society, which is why we need to treat people suffering from mental illness with compassion from an early age, often it is simply the harshness of this life that's fucked them up.

Syl wrote:

Tommy Monk wrote:

You have to be pretty dangerous to go to prison these days Syl...

Or mentally ill, stupid, naive, easily manipulated, etc etc.
But even the dangerous should be treated with some sort of dignity imo. Locking anyone up 24/7 in solitary confinement would make the ones who could be rehabilitated dangerous, and the already dangerous worse.....and we as a society will eventually have them back in our midst.

I'm not talking about locked in a cell with only 4 walls a bed and a toilet...


There is a major problem in prisons with violence and drugs... and as most are in there for violence and drug related crime... and are allowed to mooch about freely inside the prisons for much of the time... is it any surprise that prisons have the violence and drug problems...!?


Something needs to be done... as they can't be trusted to have such free rein inside the jails...


Obviously the low category prisoners need to all be kept away from the high risk ones... and different conditions enforced depending on type of criminals in each...

Most in prison are scum, yes I said MOST before the usual suspects go ape.

Energy would be far better spent looking after OUR OWN poor souls who are NOT in prison and for some reason NEED OUR HELP.

Sod the prisonuz.

Syl wrote:

Tommy Monk wrote:

You have to be pretty dangerous to go to prison these days Syl...

Or mentally ill, stupid, naive, easily manipulated, etc etc.
But even the dangerous should be treated with some sort of dignity imo. Locking anyone up 24/7 in solitary confinement would make the ones who could be rehabilitated dangerous, and the already dangerous worse.....and we as a society will eventually have them back in our midst.

When i said to keep them all in single cells and separate from each other... I didn't mean each being kept locked up 24/7 solitary confinement in a prison cell like something out of 'porridge', with nothing but the only contact being a bowl of cold gruel thrown in once a day...