22 hours ago
Commenting on HM Inspectorate of Prisons report on HMYOI Aylesbury published today (Thursday 17 August), Mark Day, Head of Policy and Communications at the Prison Reform Trust, said:
"Young adults are among the most vulnerable, troubled individuals in custody, and yet this report into the Justice Secretary David Lidington's local constituency prison shows that their needs are being neglected at every stage. It is particularly concerning that little progress has been made since the last inspection in 2015, and in some areas the prison has deteriorated further. The Justice Secretary this week committed to improving the accountability of prisons for responding to inspectorate recommendations. This cannot come soon enough, and must be matched by a commitment to ensure vulnerable young adults in the justice system get the distinct and tailored support they need."
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2 days ago
The Prison Reform Trust’s Head of Policy and Communications, Mark Day, yesterday took part on a discussion on the BBC Two Victoria Derbyshire programme on the damaging legacy of the Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP). The BBC’s story, which was also covered by the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, considered the case of James Ward, who in 2006 was given an IPP sentence with a 10 month tariff, but who 11 years later remains in custody. Commenting on the Today programme, the Chair of the Parole Board, Nick Hardwick, urged the government to “get a grip” on the issue by bringing forward measures to expedite the release on the remaining post-tariff IPP prisoners.
You can watch the feature on the Victoria Derbyshire programme here [starts 16.10]
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10/08/2017 00:01:00
Commenting on Lord Farmer's review on strengthening family ties in prison, Mark Day, Head of Policy and Communications at the Prison Reform Trust, said:
"This in-depth report rightly recognises the vital importance of family ties to improving the mental health and wellbeing of people in prison and reducing their risk of reoffending on release. Lord Farmer has produced concise recommendations to put families at the heart of safe and constructive prison regimes. Particularly welcome is the proposal that each prison should have a clear, auditable and responsive 'gateway' communication system for families and significant others, so that concerns family members or others may have about the physical or mental health of a loved one in prison can be properly recorded and action taken. We hope this and the other sensible recommendations put forward in the report will be adopted and put swiftly into practice."
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01/08/2017 15:45:00
Following the riot at HMP The Mount this week, Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust has written in the Huffington Post. A full copy of his blog is reproduced here.
Another day, another prison riot. This time it’s at The Mount, a perfectly ordinary 30-year-old prison on the outskirts of London—not some Victorian hell hole waiting for the bulldozers to move in. And this the week after another set of statistics showing accelerating violence, self-harm and death in our prison system. The coruscating annual report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons feels like a distant memory only three weeks after it was headline news.
So does the riot at The Mount tell us anything we don’t already know, and might just be bored of being told?
Click 'read more' for the full story.
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