It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought an unprecedented experience of prolonged isolation to prisons with most prisoners locked in their cells for most of the last 18 months. Prisoners have had to go without social visits, work and learning, with limited exercise and very scant access to personal, social and interpersonal stimulation.

As this report goes to press, life in most prisons is still a very long way from what anyone would consider “normal”, but the Ministry of Justice and HMPPS are actively considering what life in prison should be like in the future.

With this in mind, Prison Reform Trust (PRT) consulted with members of its Prisoner Policy Network (PPN) to explore what a future regime might look like.