Prisons & Probation – Latest News:
- Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:58:54 +0000: Expansion of HMP Parc in Wales should be paused, MPs say - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Welsh affairs committee says Bridgend jail is ‘not the right place’ to add inmates after deaths, violence and staff shortages
Plans to expand one of the most troubled prisons in England and Wales should be paused until serious failures surrounding staff and inmate safety are addressed, MPs have said.
Seventeen men died at HMP Parc in Bridgend in 2024 – the highest number recorded at any prison in England and Wales that year – amid drug use, self-harm, violence and understaffing issues. Another three men died there in the first nine months of 2025.
Continue reading... - Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:39:58 +0000: Prison officers are key to reforming the criminal justice system | Letter - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
It is frontline staff who promote change in everyday interactions and set positive goals to help reduce reoffending, says Natasha Porter
The role played by prison officers is so often overlooked and misunderstood, and your editorial (22 March) is right to highlight staff when addressing some of the issues facing prisons. Those on the frontline are uniquely placed to drive change across the system, and good prison officers can radically improve outcomes for those in their care. To build a prison system that promotes rehabilitation, staff must be at the heart of these efforts and we need to be recruiting, training and developing outstanding frontline leaders.
The challenges in prisons are well documented and reoffending rates remain stubbornly high, costing the taxpayer billions every year. With so many prisoners spending more than 22 hours in their cells every day, the officers on the landings are the most influential members of staff in a prison. Only they can reach all prisoners, even those who refuse to engage with the rest of the system. The success of efforts to reform the system – including many of those introduced by the new Sentencing Act – requires transformative leaders on the frontline.
Continue reading... - Thu, 26 Mar 2026 20:37:18 +0000: Bobby Cummines obituary - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Former violent criminal who went on to become a charismatic campaigner for the rehabilitation of offenders
While his route to Buckingham Palace via Parkhurst prison proved to be circuitous, Bobby Cummines, who has died aged 74, undertook the journey with remarkable relish.
He progressed from a north London childhood of petty crime to a career of armed robbery and ever-lengthening jail sentences. As he was shuffled around the prison estate he added considerably to his notoriety by taking the governor of Albany prison hostage, and in Parkhurst prison negotiating a truce between incarcerated members of the Kray and Richardson gangs. It was during this period that he carried a blade from a pair of garden shears up his sleeve: “I never saw a lot of rehabilitation going on.”
Continue reading... - Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:22:01 +0000: Man who murdered pregnant girlfriend has 42-year term increased to whole-life order - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Shaine March killed Alana Odysseos in 2025, having been released on licence after killing a teenager in 2000
A man who murdered his pregnant girlfriend after being released from prison on licence must spend the rest of his life in jail, the court of appeal has ruled after finding that the original 42-year sentence was “too lenient”.
Alana Odysseos, 32, was in the early stages of pregnancy with her third child when Shaine March, now 48, killed her at her home in Walthamstow, east London, in July last year. She died at the scene from 23 slash and stab wounds.
Continue reading... - Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:33:11 +0000: A place to heal for former prisoners | Brief letters - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Merfyn Turner’s legacy | Life under Trump | Millipede banknotes | Mickles and muckles | Swallowing tea
The former prisoner’s letter (22 March) was heartbreaking to read. The Welsh prison social worker Merfyn Turner opened Norman House in 1955, where he and his wife, Shirley, provided a loving, caring, supporting family atmosphere from where former prisoners, jobless and without kinship support, could rebuild their lives and heal. None of those who lived in these houses reoffended. Merfyn recognised their emotional needs as well as their practical ones. We need someone like him to create new Norman Houses now.
Margaret Owen
London• “The sense that the US is in the grip of a deranged figure is quite common among Iranians,” writes Patrick Wintour (‘Stop this savage being’: Iranians fear postponed Trump attack is merely disaster delayed, 23 March). Just Iranians?
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Tim Smith
Settle, North Yorkshire