Hotter on the inside
As Britain was hit with unprecedented temperatures on 18-19 July, prisoners sweltered. Most prisons have inadequate heating and ventilation systems, rendering cells freezing in winter and boiling in summer even without the recent extremes. Journalist and former prisoner Eric Allison, who has long campaigned on this issue, told FRFI: ‘Prisons are like ovens in summer at the best of times. The heat we have seen this month is deadly. It will come as no surprise if prisoners refuse to be incarcerated in boiling cells and physically resist being returned to them.’
Parole changes
The parole system has always been a carrot and stick mechanism, but under the current Conservative administration it is rapidly becoming all stick and hardly any carrot. On 30 June significant changes were made to the Parole Board Rules, including removing the requirement for probation officers and psychologists who write parole reports to give their opinion on whether someone can be safely released, leaving a representative of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to provide their opinion instead. This follows an earlier change on 6 June, which tightened up the criteria for indeterminate sentenced prisoners being moved to open prisons, and increased the likelihood of the MOJ vetoing recommendations by the Parole Board for such transfers.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 289 August/September 2022
