PRT comment: HMP Swaleside

Commenting on the findings of conditions at HMP Swaleside by HM Inspectorate of Prisons today (5 October), Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:

“This report describes a fundamental strategic failure to provide the number of staff a prison needs to be safe. That failure has made it impossible for management and staff locally to do almost every aspect of their job. No doubt we will be told that there are plans to improve staff recruitment and retention. But that does not change the reality for prisoners and staff now. The only way to make the prison safe is for it to hold a fraction of its current population. This is the inevitable result of the government’s love affair with imprisonment — it is time it faced up to the consequences of that pointless obsession.”