Prisons & Probation – Latest News:
- Wed, 18 Jun 2025 08:00:43 +0000: Holloway review – brave women go back to prison to unlock their stories - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
In this powerful documentary, six former inmates revisit their old cells to reflect on the childhood trauma and domestic abuse that led them to prison
You can be told the statistics: 30% of women in prison spent time in care as children, and 70% have been the victim of domestic abuse. But what this powerful documentary from Sophie Compton and Daisy-May Hudson (the latter of whom is the director of just-released film Lollipop) does is to demonstrate the cruelty and injustice of a system that incarcerates the vulnerable.
Shot in 2021, it follows six women returning to HMP Holloway in London before demolition began a year later. In the first scenes, they walk back into the prison, some into their old cells. The building is abandoned, ivy creeps up through the floorboards, but it’s still Holloway: “Fuck, I remember this smell,” says one. During a week-long workshop the women – brave and unfailingly articulate – share their stories. All of them experienced trauma in childhood, most masked it with drugs or alcohol, or unhealthy relationships. Of the six, two are now charity CEOs: Aliyah Ali and Mandy Ogunmokun, who both work to support disadvantaged women. The poet Lady Unchained is also in the group.
Continue reading... - Mon, 16 Jun 2025 13:15:35 +0000: Alex Belfield’s release from prison forces stalking victims to relive their fears - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Ex-BBC radio host is planning comeback tour of self-promotion, leaving those affected questioning his remorse
Alex Belfield was condemned as “the Jimmy Savile of trolling” when he was jailed for a stalking campaign against broadcasters including Jeremy Vine.
His victims have now spoken of their fears as the 45-year-old is released from prison, from where he has been plotting a comeback and a summer tour of self-promotion.
Continue reading... - Sat, 14 Jun 2025 12:36:37 +0000: For Women Scotland group mulls more legal action after UK supreme court gender ruling - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Campaigners say they have spoken to Scottish government about lack of action on prisons and schools guidance amid focus on toilets
For Women Scotland, the group responsible for April’s landmark supreme court ruling on biological sex, is considering further legal action against the Scottish government as they warned the key motivation for bringing the case was being lost amid debates about policy on toilets.
At a fringe event at the Scottish Conservative conference in Edinburgh, the gender critical campaign group’s co-director Susan Smith said there had been “extraordinary pushback” since five judges ruled unanimously that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 did not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates.
Continue reading... - Thu, 12 Jun 2025 04:00:55 +0000: ‘Prison was the first place we felt sisterhood’: six women return to the ruins of Holloway - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
In an astonishing new documentary, former inmates go back to the cells that once held them – and reflect on what led them there in the first place. The result is a powerful indictment of our justice system
The directors of Holloway use a simple but powerful visual device to demonstrate how badly the British prison system is failing the women it incarcerates. Towards the end of their eponynmous documentary, six former inmates are invited to play a version of Grandmother’s Footsteps in the chapel of the deserted ex-prison, where they have been filming for five days.
They begin lined up against the wall and a voice tells them: “Step forward if you grew up in a chaotic household.” All six women step forward, before being instructed: “Step forward if you experienced domestic violence growing up.” Again, they move ahead in unison. “Step forward if somebody in your household has experienced drug use. Step forward if you grew up in a household where there wasn’t very much money. Step forward if a member of your family has been to prison …”
Continue reading... - Thu, 05 Jun 2025 13:59:37 +0000: ‘My biggest fear’: the artist spending three days banged up in a jail cell - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Cell 72 will put a detained man on show for three full days and nights to confront spectators with the grim reality of confinement. Is the project exploitative or a chance to change society?
A filthy mattress lies in the corner of an otherwise barren room. The only adornments here, screwed to the wall, are a metal table and a payphone. But this is no ordinary prison. Rather, it’s a north London gallery which has been temporarily converted into a humid, fetid cell. For 72 hours, it will cage an artist in solitary confinement.
Cell 72: The Cost of Confinement at Harlesden High Street Gallery is the work of young American conceptualist Emmanuel Massillon, with fellow Washington DC artist Allen-Golder Carpenter performing the role of inmate for three days. The gallery is tiny, its glass storefront giving passersby an open view of its cramped, inhumane quarters. What they will see over the course of the performance is a black man in prison-issue attire, incarcerated behind one-way glass, suffering through the ignominy and humiliation of solitary confinement. It is a stark reminder of the cruelty currently being endured by thousands of prisoners who have fallen victim to the American prison industrial complex.
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