Archive for the ‘Inside prisons’ Category

A visit to Belfast

I visited Belfast yesterday at the invitation of Niacro to speak to MLAs following the devolution of justice. 
The lively meeting was held in a committee room in Stormont, an imposing building constructed in the 1930s reminiscent of the Italian style of the time.  MLAs from four political parties attended, along with the chief inspector, prison [...]

June 2, 2010  Tags:   Posted in: Children and young people, Government policy, Inside prisons  No Comments

Former employee of secure training centre charged with violence towards teenage boy

A former member of staff at a child jail has been given a 40-week suspended prison sentence after he admitted to dragging a teenage boy across the floor.
Neil Hanna, aged 27, was employed as a team leader at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre, near Daventry, in September 2008 when he was sent outside to bring a [...]

May 5, 2010   Posted in: Children and young people, Inside prisons, Prison officers, Prisons, Sentencing  One Comment

No discernable progress

I thought readers of this blog would be interested in some highlights (or lowlights indeed) on how children and young adults are treated in the prison system, according to the latest annual report of the Chief Inspector of Prisons:
Children
Although there has been a drop in overall numbers, the number of children serving long term sentences [...]

February 24, 2010  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Inside prisons, Prisons, Uncategorized  No Comments

No fantasyland

The prisons inspectorate is publishing its inspection of a unit inside a prison that holds young girls – the Rivendell (yes, land of the elves) unit inside New Hall prison today.
Whilst the report is broadly favourable, it should be seen in the context of prisons being totally the wrong environment for young girls. The Howard [...]

January 29, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Inside prisons, Prisons  No Comments

Ofsted and secure training centres

Happy New Year to all our supporters and readers of this blog.  Just before the break I wrote to Ofsted about the poor quality of their latest inspection of Medway secure training centre.
You can read the letter here.

January 7, 2010  Tags:   Posted in: Children and young people, Inside prisons  No Comments

The Archers and prison visits

The Archers prison based storyline is interesting at the moment because it is focusing on the problems that families face. Matt Crawford is serving a sentence for fraud and spent a few weeks initially in a local prison. His partner, Lilian, had terrible problems finding out when she could visit and what she could send [...]

December 16, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Inside prisons, Prisons  4 Comments

A story

I thought I might tell you a story.  Once upon a time there was a man who did something bad, very bad. It was a once in a lifetime explosion of anger, and he killed the person he loved.
His penalty was a life prison sentence.  He served the years, many years, many many years.  As [...]

December 12, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Inside prisons, Prisons  6 Comments

Another Queen’s Speech another criminal justice bill

For one final time before an election in 2010 the government delivered their legislative agenda in the form of the Queen’s Speech and just like every other before it, the text made reference to yet another piece of justice legislation to clamp down on anti-social behaviour. The proposed Crime and Security Bill will widen the [...]

November 18, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Government policy, Inside prisons, Prisons  One Comment

Prisoner blog creating a stir

A serving prisoner has started his own blog and this appears to be creating quite a stir with the authorities doing their best to stop him. I am not going to comment on the content and what he is saying. The point is that prisoners have a right to be able to contact the outside [...]

September 15, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Inside prisons, Prisons  One Comment

The future role for prison officers

Back from holiday and straight into the television and radio studios promoting our report on the future role for prison officers. There has been some misunderstanding about what we are suggesting. We would like to see a vocational degree level course developed over the coming years that would benefit all new entrant prison officers. The [...]

September 2, 2009  Tags: ,   Posted in: Inside prisons, Prison officers, Prisons  6 Comments