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Prison crisis worsens as fifth prison given urgent notification

Last week the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, issued an urgent notification for improvement within days of finishing the inspection on 9 November 2023. Bedford becomes the fifth establishment to receive with an urgent notification in the past 12 months. Mr Taylor said that conditions had deteriorated very sharply… The escape of a prisoner who was meant to be subject to constant supervision in July 2022 highlighted substantial weaknesses in security...

Black women at increased risk of being killed by domestic abusers

A report published today by the Centre for Women’s Justice takes a deep dive into the murders and suicides of Black and minority women linked to domestic abuse. The report, ‘Life or Death’, highlights how barriers to reporting and failures by police and other services, against a backdrop of intersecting… The researchers built a dataset of 4,370 post-death investigation reports into the deaths of BAME women who have died in the last 10 years...

Some progress made on probation and prison staffing levels

Yesterday's publication of the latest HMPPS workforce statistics which cover the period up to the end of September are the first grain of good news for the prison and probation services for a considerable period of time. The headline figures comparing this June – to September with the previous quarter… Some better news but the number of probation officers in post still represents a shortfall of 2,129 FTE against the required staffing level of 6,780 FTE...