Prisons - new material (77)
01 July 2010
Access to Justice Denied: Young Adults in Prison. The Howard League for Penal Reform 2010, pp. 22. (ISBN 978-1905994-24-3). Report finds that young adults in the criminal justice system are being ignored, creating an ”abandoned generation” and makes four recommendations: i. ensuring that legal aid remains available to children and young people in custody; ii. ensuring that Legal Service Officers are appointed in all prisons and that they receive thorough training, including in race and equality issues; iii. promoting access to justice for young prisoners through public legal education and iv. that legal services for young adults must be young-person-centred and services need to be adapted to their needs. Available at: http://www.howardleague.org/fileadmin/howard_league/user/online_publications/Access_to_Justice_Denied.pdf
Women in prison: a short thematic review. HM Inspectorate of Prisons, July 2010, pp. 81, (ISBN: 978-1-84099-311-0). The report says that there are 4,300 women in the 14 women’s prisons in England and Wales (more or less the same number as the previous year) of which almost a third arrive with drug problems and a fifth with alcohol problems. It also found that a third of women feel “depressed or suicidal” on arrival. The problem is worse at local prisons and the report expresses “serious concern” at the relatively high use of force used here. It says: “The extent and seriousness of self-harm, particularly in women’s local prisons, remains high, sometimes resulting in extreme measures, including the use of force.” There are other concerns: “Three women’s prisons were not judged to be sufficiently safe: one had noticeably declined when increased numbers led to the use of a large number of detached duty staff, many of them men. Dormitory accommodation in women’s prisons remained highly unsatisfactory, on grounds both of safety and respect. Three prisons were also not performing sufficiently well in resettlement, because services were not sufficiently aligned to the specific needs of women, or of the women who were held. Work with foreign nationals was often underdeveloped, a serious failing given the over-representation of this group within the women’s prison population. Many of the issues that affect the prison population generally had a particular resonance for women, given their vulnerability and needs: the lack of sufficient primary mental health care, the need for more alcohol services, and the lack of custody planning for short-sentenced and remanded women.” Available at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/inspectorates/hmiprisons/docs/Womens_Thematic_2010_rps_.pdf