The independent monitoring board’s annual report on prisons in England and Wales is here, and spoiler alert: it’s not a feel-good read. Inmates are crammed into overcrowded, vermin-infested cells, fed poorly, denied medical care, and left to rot with no education or skills training. Gangs run the wings, collecting drug debts with threats of violence, while broken toilets go unfixed for weeks. Leave your cell? Risk getting attacked with weapons. The report sums it up with the dry understatement that “failures once regarded as serious are at risk of becoming normalised.”
Specific highlights include a man at HMP Garth who died in a cell fire after the alarm apparently failed to work; a prisoner at HMP Bullingdon warned he might lose his leg after being bitten during a spider infestation; and a spike in self-harm during hot weather at HMP Foston Hall because managers couldn’t afford fans. It’s no wonder drug addiction is on the rise behind bars - it’s apparently the only escape from the monotony and fear.
The crisis predates Keir Starmer’s government, but he had to deal with it immediately upon taking office in summer 2024. His then justice secretary Shabana Mahmood introduced early release schemes and diverted prisoners to police cells, warning the criminal justice system was “close to collapse” and that without prison places, criminals might act with impunity. “There is now only one way to avert disaster,” she said. Disaster was temporarily averted, but the threat of the prison population exceeding 89,800 still haunts the Ministry of Justice. More reforms have followed: thousands of jury trials are being scrapped, magistrates will handle more serious cases, and the automatic right to appeal for many accused people is being dropped.
But while total collapse has been avoided, prisoners continue to live in bleak conditions under Starmer. The report notes spikes in debt-related violence and anxiety-driven self-harm as drug dealers collect debts. Guards, often inexperienced, seem unable to cope and sometimes collude with prisoners - inmates at HMP Manchester were reportedly “informed in advance of a cell search.” Two years ago, penal reformers hailed the appointment of Lord James Timpson as prisons minister, a longstanding advocate for ex-offenders who hoped to “provide them with the tools they need to rebuild their lives.” But independent monitors say their concerns get little action from central government. “Despite repeated warnings… the same problems persist with striking frequency,” the report concludes. “This recurring pattern raises unavoidable questions about effectiveness, accountability and the system’s capacity to correct its course.”