Prisons & Probation – Latest News:
- Wed, 12 Nov 2025 18:08:08 +0000: Release errors show the sorry state that prisons are in | Letters - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
John Lovelock and James Stoddart on the woeful state of prisons, caused by funding cuts and lack of support for both inmates and staff
I have considerable sympathy with David Lammy’s current predicament (Lammy says he was right not to discuss mistakenly freed prisoner at PMQs, 6 November). Our entire justice system was woefully neglected throughout 14 years of Conservative tenure. But this neglect was particularly calamitous in relation to our prisons. Rectifying the obscenity that currently passes for our prison system will require enormous government investment of public money at a time when public finances are stretched and sympathy for our prison population is low: there are precious few votes in a manifesto promise to improve the lot of prisoners.
However, I feel we must look at this disgraceful situation from the standpoint of the poor prison officers who are tasked with working in these dreadful institutions. If conditions in our largely outdated prisons are bad for the inmates, just imagine what it is like having to work in them. It must be incredibly difficult to recruit new staff to the Prison Service and nigh on impossible to retain them, leaving the service dependent on young, inexperienced, demotivated staff with poor morale who are regularly exposed to high levels of verbal and physical abuse.
Continue reading... - Wed, 12 Nov 2025 16:33:06 +0000: Abuse by UK’s ‘most prolific sex offender’ was ignored at Medomsley detention centre, report finds - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Neville Husband committed hundreds of offences while working at facility in County Durham from 1969 to 1985
A man who worked as a prison officer and caterer in a youth detention centre was able to rape and torture boys for three decades while the abuse was “ignored and dismissed”, according to a report labelling him as possibly Britain’s worst ever sex offender.
Neville Husband carried out at least 388 sexual offences against young men and boys between 1969 and 1985 while working at Medomsley detention centre in County Durham, but is believed have committed hundreds more crimes, which would take the total past the 450 committed by Jimmy Savile.
Continue reading... - Wed, 12 Nov 2025 06:00:17 +0000: There’s a missing link in British public life – and it underpins crises from the BBC to our prisons | Rafael Behr - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
A declining sense of collective identity is corroding trust in our institutions and undermining democratic politics
Imagine you are given a pile of tokens, representing real money, and invited to donate to a common pot. There are other players but you can’t interact with them. The sum of collective contributions will be trebled, then shared equally among all players. What do you do?
If everyone submits all their money, all get richer. But if everyone except you pays in, you can enjoy the collective payout while retaining your original stash. The flaw in the selfish strategy is that other people might have the same idea. If no one pays in, there is no bounty to share.
Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading... - Tue, 11 Nov 2025 22:30:07 +0000: Domestic violence victims at risk under bill aimed at easing prison overcrowding, watchdog warns - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Victims and survivors “will be put in harm’s way” with “devastating consequences”, domestic abuse commissioner says
Violent partners will be allowed to “return to harassing, stalking and abusing” with impunity under a bill before parliament that is supposed to ease prison overcrowding, a watchdog has warned the lord chancellor.
In a letter to David Lammy, the domestic abuse commissioner, Dame Nicole Jacobs, said the sentencing bill’s aim to re-release the vast majority of offenders recalled to prison after 56 days would mean that victims and survivors “will be put in harm’s way” and lead to “devastating consequences”.
Continue reading... - Tue, 11 Nov 2025 18:40:29 +0000: Nandy rules out taking action to remove Robbie Gibb from BBC board – as it happened - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Culture secretary also condemns MPs who dismiss BBC as ‘institutionally biased’ in swipe at Badenoch and Farage. This live blog is closed
Here is a round-up of what various lawyers and commentators have been saying about Donald Trump’s legal case against the BBC.
Joshua Rozenberg, the legal commentator and a former BBC journalist, has said in a post on his A Lawyer Writes Substack that the corporation should settle. He explains:
Given what Brito is claiming, the lawyer is unlikely to be impressed with the BBC’s assertion that “the purpose of editing the clip was to convey the message of the speech made by President Trump so that Panorama’s audience could better understand how it had been received by President Trump’s supporters and what was happening on the ground at that time”.
So the BBC would be well advised to draft a retraction and apology in terms that the president’s lawyer finds acceptable. Brito is also calling for this to be broadcast as prominently as the original programme. And the corporation will have to pay compensation.
George Peretz KC, chair of the Society of Labour Lawyers, says on Bluesky, commenting on Rozenberg’s blog, that the BBC might be better off with a more robust approach.
So at the moment, despite @joshuarozenberg.bsky.social’s piece, I wonder whether a better BBC response would be the Arkell v Pressdram one. proftomcrick.com/2014/04/29/a...
(At least to the extent he’s seeking more than a formal apology limited to the obvious mistake and a very modest offer of compensation.)
There is, after all, the risk of a dangerous precedent here. The BBC will often offend foreign leaders – some worse than Trump. Sometimes it will make factual mistakes in reporting on them. Yield to Trump now, and who next?
Mark Stephens, a media lawyer, told BBC Breakfast that a court case could reflect badly on Trump. He said:
Every damning quote that he’s ever uttered is going to be played back to him and picked over – not great PR.
Trump risks turning what’s currently a PR skirmish with the BBC very much on the back foot into a global headline that the court finds Trump’s words were incendiary …
George Freeman, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York and a former lawyer for the New York Times, told the BBC that Trump “has a long record of unsuccessful libel suits – and an even longer record of letters like the one you received that don’t end up as lawsuits at all”.
Christopher Steele, the former MI6 officer who is trying to recover costs from Trump after the president sued him unsuccessfully in the UK, says Trump’s latest threat is preposterous.
Donald Trump’s threat to sue the BBC in London is preposterous. He remains in breach of English High Court orders in a case he brought and lost against Orbis 18 months ago. So any further abuse of the UK courts by him for such legal tourism and intimidation should be prohibited.
Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, says the BBC has been told Trump does not have a case.
The legal advice to the BBC I am told is that President Trump was not meaningfully damaged by Panorama’s manipulation of his 6 January speech, and that therefore there is no legal necessity to pay him compensation. The BBC board is therefore likely to resist and fight his demand to be “appropriately compensated” out of court, and will risk him carrying through on his threat to seek $1bn in damages by going to court.
These times are difficult for the BBC but we will get through it. We will get through it and we will thrive. This narrative will not just be given by our enemies. It’s our narrative. We own things.
I see the free press under pressure. I see the weaponisation. I think we have to fight for our journalism.
We have made some mistakes that have cost us but we need to fight for that.
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