Our jails are awash with drugs and legal highs and are stuffed with too many non-dangerous criminals… Liz Truss must re-establish order after cuts
As our probe shows, in just 19 days 96 prisoners were attacked, while there were riots and smuggling attempts
THE horrific and spiralling human cost of the anarchy in our cesspit jails is laid bare.
Some 324 inmates died in the year to September, a third of them suicides.
Our prisons are awash with drugs, legal highs, mobiles and other smuggled contraband often flown in by drone.
Violence is soaring. Escapes are commonplace. As our probe shows, in just 19 days 96 prisoners were attacked, while there were riots and smuggling attempts.
Some prisons are ancient and squalid, others so lax lags cook illicit steak dinners and post pictures on Facebook.
The system is in disarray. The problems are overcrowding, with too many non-dangerous criminals banged up, and catastrophic under-staffing after cuts.
The remaining prison officers are increasingly in danger. They are too few to police and organise inmates or to search visitors.
Many people won’t much care how bad conditions are for thugs who need locking up. But prisons should always be places of order and discipline. Lags should face harsh sanctions for breaking rules. But, for society’s sake and theirs, they should also get the chance to reinvent themselves and retrain for a fulfilling life on release — rather than simply returning to crime.
This balance needs proper staffing.
We are on our fourth Justice Secretary in just six years — which is part of the problem. It is too soon to accuse the latest of being out of her depth. But Liz Truss must immediately re-establish order.
The vast extra investment and 2,100 new guards is a good start.
But where are the new jails Britain was promised a year ago to ease overcrowding?
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