Prisons & Probation – Latest News:
- Wed, 01 Oct 2025 17:29:26 +0000: Foreigners underrepresented among prisoners in England and Wales, report finds - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Analysis finds lower proportion of foreign inmates than would be expected if they were jailed at same rate as UK citizens of same age
Foreign nationals are underrepresented as a proportion of prisoners jailed in England and Wales when compared with rates of incarceration among British citizens of similar age, an analysis of government data has found.
In June, 12.4% of prisoners were non-UK nationals, excluding people with no recorded nationality, according to Oxford University’s Migration Observatory. The figure roughly mirrors official statistics indicating that about 12% of the overall population in England and Wales last year were foreign nationals.
Continue reading... - Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:37:18 +0000: No-star review for a request for feedback | Brief letters - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Not happy ATM | Edward Thomas | Electronic ID | Trump and Blair | Days of thunder
I am used to the constant email requests for feedback or reviews after purchasing anything online or receiving deliveries, but this one beggars belief: “Based on your recent experience of using the cash deposit machine, how likely are you to recommend the NatWest Didsbury Wilmslow Road to a friend or family member?” Do Natwest seriously think I have time to review a machine?
Susan Treagus
Manchester• The artistic endeavours inspired by railways mentioned in your editorial (26 September) does not include the best of all, Edward Thomas’s 1914 poem Adlestrop. In its final two lines, “… all the birds / Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire”, you can actually hear the engine stirring back into action.
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Laurence Inman
Kings Heath, Birmingham - Sun, 28 Sep 2025 15:55:55 +0000: How we can reform community sentencing | Letters - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
A plan to name and shame people doing community service is wrong, says Ruth Windle. Plus a letter from Peter Fellows
The idea that naming and shaming offenders will “build confidence” in community sentences is beyond belief (Report, 26 September). I thought we had moved beyond the middle ages. Do ministers not realise that this is playing to the mob and the politics of revenge?
People serving community sentences have already faced the courts and publicly carried out their sentencing. To name and shame adds to their humiliation and the sense that they are pariahs in society. It incites (to my mind, justifiably) resentment. How is this rehabilitation? How does it build a more cohesive and caring society? What builds confidence in community sentencing is that it can boost offenders’ sense of having something to contribute to their local community and society at large.
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Ruth Windle
Frome, Somerset - Fri, 26 Sep 2025 13:11:01 +0000: Scottish Prison Service admits human rights law breach over death in custody - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Police Scotland and Crown Office also make admissions in court relating to death of Allan Marshall in 2015
The Scottish Prison Service has admitted breaching human rights law by causing the death of a man who was restrained by 17 officers and has apologised to his family.
In a series of unprecedented admissions, Police Scotland and the Crown Office accepted they similarly breached Allan Marshall’s right to life under article 2 of the European convention on human rights when they failed to carry out an adequate investigation into his death in custody.
Continue reading... - Fri, 26 Sep 2025 06:00:03 +0000: Ministers plan to allow naming and shaming of offenders completing community sentences - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Exclusive: critics say the move, part of the sentencing bill for England and Wales, would bring shame upon families of offenders
Ministers are pushing through powers to photograph, name and shame offenders who have been ordered to complete unpaid community work in England and Wales.
The sentencing bill, now moving through parliament, will for the first time give probation officers “a legal power” to take and publish the names and pictures of individuals ordered by courts to tidy grass verges, litter-pick or scrub graffiti.
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