Prisons & Probation – Latest News:
- Wed, 28 May 2025 18:24:57 +0000: Police were ‘consulted’ over early prison release scheme, says Ministry of Justice - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Mark Rowley, Met commissioner, had said plans for England and Wales were made ‘without any analysis of the impact on policing’
The justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has hit back at the UK’s most senior police officer in a row over the impact of allowing thousands of criminals to serve their sentences in the community instead of being sent to jail.
The Ministry of Justice insisted on Wednesday that officials “consulted with police” including the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, over proposed changes to sentencing policies introduced to ease prison overcrowding.
Continue reading... - Wed, 28 May 2025 16:32:04 +0000: Chemical castration and unsound ethics | Brief letters - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Sex offenders | Punctuation pedant | Colons | Semicolons | Kiwi clue
Medical experts say they’ll refuse to implement mandatory chemical castration, and one states: “Doctors are not agents of social control. It would be ethically unsound to use medication to reduce risk rather than to treat a medical condition” (Report, 22 May). Yet in psychiatry, social control is routinely exercised, and drugs are often prescribed not to alleviate suffering, but primarily to manage perceived risk. Sex offenders should not be given more ethical consideration and bodily autonomy than psychiatric patients.
Jacqui Dillon
London• I must take issue with Marilyn Rowley over the use of the semicolon (Letters, 26 May). Reading a sentence aloud with measured pauses will not cut the mustard; an essential prerequisite is a grasp of the difference between a phrase and a main clause. I pontificate as a retired pedagogical pedant who should get out more.
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Ian Barge
Ludlow, Shropshire - Wed, 28 May 2025 13:14:15 +0000: UK politics: minister defends Labour’s justice record after warnings of threat to public safety – as it happened - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Housing minister says previous government left prison system in state of ‘criminal neglect’ amid warnings over early release plan
Grocery price inflation in the UK jumped to 4.1% in the past month – the highest level since February 2024 – driven by the rising cost of butter, chocolate and sun cream.
Sarah Butler has more here: UK grocery inflation jumps to highest level in 15 months
Continue reading... - Wed, 28 May 2025 09:23:36 +0000: UK’s most senior police officer criticises early prison release scheme - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Mark Rowley joins head of MI5 and National Crime Agency in letter to justice ministry to say public could be at risk
Britain’s most senior police officer has criticised ministers for failing to assess the impact on forces of its plans to release prisoners early.
Sir Mark Rowley said the scheme to free thousands of offenders early to ease overcrowded prisons would “generate a lot of work for police”. The Metropolitan police commissioner added: “Every time you put an offender into the community, a proportion of them will commit crime [and] will need chasing down by the police.”
Continue reading... - Tue, 27 May 2025 17:33:11 +0000: The Guardian view on young offenders: amid rising violence, they need support to change | Editorial - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Unsustainable levels of conflict across the prison estate require a stronger response than pepper spray
The recent deterioration of conditions for young offenders has been overshadowed by the wider crisis engulfing prisons in England and Wales. But the accounts given to the Guardian by three mothers of sons who are currently in HMP Swinfen Hall, in Staffordshire, offer a disturbing insight into the exceptionally high levels of violence that have become normalised.
Their descriptions of “constant fear”, casual knifings and “drugs and knives everywhere” are chilling. Two of the women said that they agreed with the decision to jail their sons. But reading their testimony, which echoes the findings of a recent prison inspectorate survey, it is impossible to believe that any rehabilitative purpose is being served. The suggestion by one of the women that her son is becoming more violent rather than less due to the conditions rings alarmingly true, and is in line with the conclusion of David Gauke’s independent review of sentencing that prisons are failing to reduce reoffending.
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