A regrettable feature of the current coronarvirus crisis is the government using it as an excuse to expand prison capacity, rather than as a prompt to address our crisis of overincarceration.
The COVID-19 outbreak has shone a spotlight on prisons as major sites of contagion.
Coronavirus cases continue to spread among prisoners and prisons in England and Wales.
'The virus doesn’t care if you’re an officer or a prisoner. If a prisoner has it today, the officers will have it tomorrow and the officer’s family will have it the day after that.'
In the months since I first publicly voiced concerns on 23 January 2020 about what the novel coronavirus, Covid-19 might do in the prison setting, one book has barely left my side.
‘Our government must do more’ said Richard Garside in an interview with The Guardian today.
He continued, ‘If you set out to create an institution with the express intent of concentrating and transmitting Covid-19, it would probably look much like a prison.’
At least 10,000 to 15,000 prisoners need to be released from the prison system, to allow for single cells, but the...
Over recent weeks there have been several calls for people in prison and detention centres to be released, largely framed as a ‘public health’ response and a way of keeping whole communities safe.
Last week, the government announced a review into emerging evidence that people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
Age data on prisoners in England and Wales highlight the significant at-risk population.
Another week, and the signs are that the problem of coronavirus crisis in prisons continues to get worse.
In June we'll be holding three webinars on the implications of the coronavirus for the criminal justice system, in partnership with The Open University.
Following lockdowns and social distancing, some encouraging signs of the beginnings of a slowdown in the spread of COVID-19.
