History > 2006 > UK > Prison (II)

Record number in jails

raises fear of violence

Warning from officers
as inmate total hits new high

Thursday August 31, 2006
Guardian
Esther Addley and Alan Travis

Critical levels of overcrowding are putting Britain's prisons at risk of violence, the head of the Prison Officers Association said yesterday.
Brian Caton, the association's general secretary, said that "unrest is in the air", as the number of inmates in the system soared to yet another record high.

"Prison officers know about violence and have seen it escalate in the last 12 months," Mr Caton said. "I think we are in danger of all sorts of disruption. You can feel it in the air."

With the England and Wales prison population on Tuesday standing at 79,247, an all-time record, some prison managers fear that the system could run out of space within a matter of weeks.

The absolute maximum that the network can hold is 79,900.

The home secretary, John Reid, has been keen to take a tough stance on crime and sentencing, but with the prison system almost full, his officials are considering moves to free some inmates 10 days early to create 500 more spaces.

Last month, Mr Reid announced plans to build 8,000 new prison places, but they will not come on stream until 2012.

The rise in the prison population is being fuelled in part by much tougher action against ex-prisoners who breach the terms of their release into the community once they have served part of their sentence.

Home Office figures show that the number of offenders who have been recalled to custody has risen by 350% in four years, from 3,182 in 2000-01 to 11,081 in 2004-05.

These "revolving door" offenders - so called because they are in and out of jail - now account for 11% of the prison population in England and Wales, and are a key hidden driver of the increase in prisoner numbers.

The governor of one local prison told the Guardian that the proportion of prisoners in his jail who had been recalled for breaches had reached 15%. Ferdie Parker, governor of HMP Blakenhurst, near Redditch in Worcestershire, said: "We used to see about one or two breaches a week, but it's not unusual for us now to see 10 a week. Where we used to have about 40 in this jail, I would think we've probably got nearer 160-170 now. It's a significant increase."

Blakenhurst has a "certified normal accommodation" of 827 but currently holds 1,070 prisoners - its absolute limit for "safe" detention.

This increase is being compounded by a much tougher attitude towards those who fail to comply with the conditions of community sentences, such as community work orders or probation. The number of people jailed for breaching community sentences rose from 5,364 in 1994 to 7,018 in 2004, following repeated Home Office drives to tighten the rules.

The Prison Reform Trust argues that many of those recalled to prison or jailed for breaching community punishments do not pose a threat to the public and need not necessarily be jailed. "There ought to be a more sophisticated way of ensuring compliance than just yanking them back to prison," said its director, Juliet Lyon. "It seems to us a very expensive way of operating the system. We have to begin seeing the prison system as a vital, scarce resource, rather than a social dustbin."

Prison service figures show that only a quarter of those recalled to prison for breaches faced a further charge. The largest proportion, 30%, were considered "out of touch"; 18% were breached for problems with their behaviour; 8% for breaking the terms of where they should live; and 18% for "other reasons".

"Everyone, politicians included, accepts there's a finite level to the number they can put in prison," said Phil Wheatley, director general of the prison service. "If they want to put some more people in, they need to build more prisons, or they can put fewer people in prison."

Mr Wheatley said that imprisoning people who breached their licence was necessary under current sentencing arrangements. "If we are going to run those sort of sentences, there's a price to pay in terms of the prison population," he added.

Record number in jails raises fear of violence, 31.8.2006, http://society.guardian.co.uk/crimeandpunishment/story/0,,1861559,00.html

Back in cell:

the robber who couldn't stand

life with a tag

Thursday August 31, 2006
Guardian
Esther Addley

Earlier this month, Phillip King was admitted to HMP Blakenhurst. King, who is 42, had originally been sentenced to a prison term for robbery, but in February, having served most of his term and been deemed of no risk to the public, he was released early on condition that he wore an electronic tag around his ankle.

Then, with just three weeks left before his tag was due to be removed, he cut it off.

"I told the probation service I couldn't stand it any longer at the address where I had to live," he said. "It was just the pressure of living under someone else's roof. So I cut it off and went to hand myself in straight away at a police station." He was sent straight back to prison for breach of his licence.

Blakenhurst is a local jail, the first port of call for offenders released from the courts into the prison system. Some can expect to stay for the duration of their sentences; others will be moved on to other jails.

Opened in 1993, it is regarded as a success story under the guidance of its relentlessly cheerful governor, Ferdie Parker. It is bright and clean, with its ubiquitous bars freshly painted in a palette of pastels. Inmates in grey tracksuits are shuttled along corridors to daily shifts in the prison workshops and to strictly rotated exercise sessions, while others buff the vinyl floors to a high shine.

On the wings, some prisoners lean over mini pool tables while others prefer to smoke in their cells, many of which have been fitted with an extra bunk on top of the original bed.

On the day the Guardian visited the Midlands jail, every bed in every cell was occupied. The jail is coping, insisted Mr Parker, "but the room for manoeuvre shrinks the more the population increases.

"It's a bit like the tide. If it keeps coming in, eventually at some point you run out of ground to step on."

It is not merely a crude pressure for beds. The more juggling that governors have to do to ensure they have some spare capacity, the more prisoners can find themselves being moved from prison to prison, interrupting treatment and offending behaviour programmes, and isolating them from their families.

In addition, a large proportion of the prison population have serious drugs, alcohol and mental health problems. One prisoner at Blakenhurst had arms ribboned with self-harm scars and deep cigarette burns. "We'd release him on Friday and he'd be back in with us on Monday," said Mr Parker. "He'd do something minor like criminal damage to get back in."

Changes to mental health provision in the wider community have had a significant impact on prison numbers, the governor said.

Another significant factor are those inmates, like King, who breach the terms of their licence.

King said: "As far as I could see, my last sentence was the end of my career as a criminal. It's lovely when you get out, but it doesn't always work out. So now they've called me back to prison." He had yet to find out how long, this time, he would be required to stay.

Case studies

Clifford Diston, 45

It was just minor theft - forty quid's worth of DVDs - so I was sentenced to a community order. I was doing unpaid work, painting or digging ditches around Rugby, where I'm from. I was literally five minutes late for work one day, and they sent me away, and then I was late on another occasion and they put me back [in prison]. Why? I was just running late. I went to court expecting another [community] sentence, but they sent me down, which I really wasn't expecting. I feel disgusted really, considering I have never really been in very much trouble. I am a floor layer, and I was supposed to be doing a club today for someone, fitting toilets and that. I'm sure he's up in arms about it. My wife and little boy as well. He's three. I haven't really had a great deal of time to talk to my wife. It's just the inconvenience. Short sentences seem to last a bit longer than the longer ones, if you know what I mean.

Darren Carter Hounslow, 34

I'm an alcoholic. That's where all my problems begin. I've been drinking since I was 11. It was just what I saw I guess. I had a violent upbringing, a violent stepdad. He was a drunk as well. Maybe I did it to blank it out.

I'm doing three months for harassment without violence, eight ecstasy pills, theft of a bottle of vodka and abusive behaviour. I was just trying to get in touch with my little lad, and my ex-missus said no. I'm not allowed to get in touch with her. Then I missed two appointments with probation and they sent me to be sentenced. This is my fourth time in prison, though they've only been little sentences. A lot of driving offences. One was drink-driving. One was 18 months for nicking a car.

I have cut down quite a bit - I was up to two litres of vodka a day, and I cut down to half a bottle, all off my own bat. The problem is, I drink to socialise, then I take it too far. I wouldn't have ended up in trouble if it wasn't for the drink.

Antony Jones, 40

I have done half my life in jail. I first went to prison when I was 16; I used to box when I was young and I was a bit of a tough nut. I had a bit of a set-to in a pub and got three years. Then I was working in London when I was 18, and unfortunately some colleagues and I happened into a pub well known for Chelsea hooligans. I got another three years. Because of jail and mixing with certain types I ended up getting 15 years for robbery. Being in a long-term jail with people doing 20-25 years - well, you need some sort of release. I was about 22, and I had three children, my relationship split up, and I ended up on heroin. But I've stopped it now. By myself. I'm gutted to be back. I was on a four-month suspended sentence for drugs and driving offences, but got sent back, with a month on top, for failing to turn up at a police station. But it's only five months. I've done longer in segregation.

    Back in cell: the robber who couldn't stand life with a tag, G, 31.8.2006, http://society.guardian.co.uk/crimeandpunishment/story/0,,1861585,00.html

Leaked report accuses 1,000 prison officers of corruption

· Offences include taking bribes and drug smuggling
· Service head says problem is being tackled

Tuesday August 1, 2006
Guardian
Alan Travis, home affairs editor

There are at least 1,000 corrupt prison officers who smuggle drugs and mobile phones into prisons, and a further 500 staff are involved in "inappropriate relationships" with inmates, according to a confidential internal police and Prison Service report.

The study, leaked to the BBC, says the vast majority of the 45,000 prison staff in England and Wales are honest and operate with integrity, but a small minority are involved in corrupt practices, which include accepting bribes to facilitate transfers to less secure prisons.

The report, drawn up by the Prison Service's anti-corruption unit and the Metropolitan police, says the estimate of 1,000 corrupt staff should be considered the lowest likely number and warns that the problem is growing.

Yesterday's disclosure led crime experts to warn that the anti-corruption unit was gathering intelligence but not investigating individual cases.

Tim Newburn, of the London School of Economics, who carried out an official study of the problem six years ago, said an investigatory agency separate from the Prison Service was needed to tackle corruption.

As part of the six-month inquiry, researchers visited senior Prison Service officials, including governors and area managers, and trawled the Prison Service intelligence database, known as Watson. One area manager is quoted as saying that 70 reports filed by officers identifying other officers as corrupt had not been referred to headquarters and no action had been taken.

An unnamed prison governor is quoted as saying: "Here corruption is endemic ... I've identified over 20 corrupt staff, but there may be more." Another says: "I currently have 10 corrupt staff and I am managing the threat they pose to my prison. Positive mandatory drug testing figures are over 20%, so it must be staff bringing in drugs."

The director general of the prison service, Phil Wheatley, acknowledged that there was a problem with "bent officers" in the system, which he said had always been the case.

But he said declining levels of escapes and drug use in prisons suggested the problem was being successfully tackled.

"I have no doubt that we have to regard this as something that is serious and work hard at it," he said. "But I don't think the answer is to create a large investigatory force, which would have to take resources away from frontline work, when the police are a genuinely independent investigation force able to investigate crime."

Mr Wheatley also rejected suggestions that prison officers failed to report corrupt colleagues out of a false sense of loyalty. "Most prison staff hate those who are corrupt," he said. "They are dangerous to you. They may bring in a weapon that could be used against you. So there is no loyalty to people behaving in this way."

Brian Caton, of the Prison Officers' Association, said immediate action was needed: "I joined the Prison Service in 1977. It was then a stricter vetting process, a lot stricter interview process to get into the Prison Service than to get into the police, for obvious reasons."

    Leaked report accuses 1,000 prison officers of corruption, G, 1.8.2006, http://society.guardian.co.uk/crimeandpunishment/story/0,,1834454,00.html

Mubarek inquiry calls for urgent jail reform

Friday June 30, 2006
Guardian
Vikram Dodd and Alan Travis

The official inquiry into the murder of an Asian prisoner by his racist psychopath cellmate yesterday demanded that more money must be found for prisons, or fewer people should be sent to jail.

The damning findings of the report by Mr Justice Keith came on the day official figures showed the prison population in England and Wales had hit an all-time high of 77,865.

The inquiry found that 186 separate failings led Robert Stewart to be placed in a cell with Zahid Mubarek at Feltham young offenders' institution, west London. In March 2000 Stewart, a skinhead with "RIP" tattooed on his forehead, beat Mr Mubarek to death with a table leg.

The report found the Prison Service plagued by institutional racism, but said the placing of Mr Mubarek in a cell with a known racist was not deliberate but a result of "shocking" errors.

Mr Justice Keith said a "bewildering catalogue of shortcomings, both individual and systemic", led to the murder at Feltham, which in 2000 was under-resourced and overstretched. He described a breakdown in communications between different sections of Feltham which meant crucial information about Stewart was not passed on, mislaid, or not acted upon.

Mr Mubarek had asked to move cells days before his murder, the report found, and Stewart was so dangerous he should not have shared a cell with anyone.

Warning after warning was missed, including letters Stewart wrote in which he fantasised about racial violence and killing his cellmate. But the high court judge said the most important lesson to be learned from Feltham's "meltdown" was that decent prisons needed fewer inmates or more money.

"The bottom line is that you are only going to get the prisons you are prepared to pay for," he said. "Either you keep the prison population down by changing sentencing policy, or you accept that the prison population will increase, and you inject sufficient funds into the system to ensure that prisoners are treated decently and humanely. The trouble is that neither of these options is a vote winner."

The home secretary, John Reid, said the report was the "most thorough examination" yet of Mr Mubarek's murder. But with the prison population hitting a record high ministers will find it impossible to implement the inquiry's key recommendation to end forced cell sharing. Four out of every 10 prisoners now have to "double up" in cells designed for one and officials estimate it would cost more than £2bn to end the practice.

Mr Reid accepted 50 of the 88 other recommendations, including official recognition of the term "institutional religious intolerance", included because Mr Mubarek was a Muslim. Mr Reid promised to respond to the other recommendations within two months.

Mr Mubarek, 19, was a petty criminal who was killed on the day he was to be released after serving a short sentence. His family had to take the government to court to win the inquiry, which ministers had claimed was not needed. Dexter Dias, a lawyer for the Mubarek family said: "The Prison Service and Home Office were both before and after Zahid's death co-conspirators in a woeful conspiracy of incompetence and indifference of truly criminal magnitude.

"Zahid's death was no more or less than institutional murder."

Yesterday the Home Office wrote to the Mubarek family. Lady Scotland, a Home Office minister, said: "I must say again how sorry we are that we failed Zahid and you while he was in our care." The apology was the first to be made in such strong and clear terms.

The report names 19 individuals as making errors, ranging from the then governor of Feltham to a prison officer who found a piece of a table in the cell but failed to make further checks which would have revealed Stewart had broken the leg off.

The report said there was no evidence that inmates were pitted against each other in fights, with prison officers placing bets on the winner.

The Prison Service says Feltham has improved since the murder.

    Mubarek inquiry calls for urgent jail reform, NYT, 30.6.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/prisons/story/0,,1809577,00.html

Prozac for paedophiles

Jailed sex offenders to get anti-depressants in controversial treatment approved by ministers.
Home Secretary attacked by Met police chief over plans to move offenders out of hostels

Published: 25 June 2006
The Independent
By Sophie Goodchild and Francis Elliott
 

Paedophiles and other sex offenders are to be prescribed Prozac in an attempt to prevent them reoffending, under radical plans approved by ministers.

The Independent on Sunday can today reveal that 100 prisoners in nine jails will take part in trials of the anti-depressant drug this autumn to test its use in suppressing obsessive sexual urges. An estimated 10 per cent of sex offenders could eventually be treated with the drug.

The Department of Health is also understood to be investigating the possible use of voluntary "chemical castration", which uses libido-suppressing drugs to treat sex offenders who do not respond to ordinary programmes.

The disclosure that ministers plan to use these controversial measures to deal with sex attackers comes amid a growing political row over how children should be protected from sex abusers.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, fears that removing sex offenders from bail hostels near schools will severely disrupt the offenders' treatment programmes and could place children at greater risk of harm, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.

The issue of how best to protect children from sex offenders has been thrust to the top of the political agenda by John Reid in recent announcements to tabloid newspapers.

The Home Secretary's announcement in last week's News of the World that he was also considering alerting parents to any paedophile neighbours drew accusations from senior police that he had succumbed to blackmail. Terry Grange, from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said it was "policy-making on the hoof".

Britain's senior police officers are increasingly concerned about a shift in policy on how paedophiles are handled, which they believe could result in justice at the hands of the lynch mob.

Critics say the introduction to Britain of a so-called Megan's Law, based on US legislation under which names and addresses of paedophiles are publicised, would lull parents into a false sense of security and provoke mob violence.

Successful management of offenders is, say experts, the most cost-effective way to protect children. Drug treatment and the use of compulsory lie detectors for paedophiles on probation aim to further reduce the risk of reoffending.

Prozac - or its generic version, Fluoxetine - is already widely used in North America for the treatment of sex offenders, although it is effective only with the minority prone to obsessive thoughts.

Professor Don Grubin, who is leading the Department of Health-funded pilot, told the IoS that the drug could be effective in treating up to 10 per cent of offenders. "These drugs lessen their intensity and work on obsessive compulsive disorders. They also help with elevating mood."

Compulsory lie detector tests are seen as a useful way of preventing reoffending and breach of parole, but plans to make them mandatory have never made it on to the statute books.

Harry Fletcher, of the National Association of Probation Officers, said most sex offenders could be managed successfully.

"With the right programmes, sex offenders can be treated. There is no evidence that there has been any significant rise in attacks, and the number of kidnaps are so small they don't even record them."

How it works

Prozac stimulates the brain's production of the enzyme serotonin, which can cause loss of libido. The enzyme also boosts self-esteem and helps people overcome negative and obsessive emotions such as deviant desires to have sex with children.

    Prozac for paedophiles, IoS, 25.6.2006, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1096229.ece

Racist killing report names jail officials

Former prisons inspector denounces promotions

Sunday June 25, 2006
The Observer
Ned Temko, chief political correspondent

The inquiry into the murder of Asian teenager Zahid Mubarek by a racist cell-mate will this week name at least two officials who have since been promoted and highlight a 'lack of accountability' over the killing, The Observer can reveal. Sources who have seen the report by Mr Justice Keith said it goes into detail about individual errors or oversights and criticises management failures.

A major theme of the final report from the two-year inquiry, to be published on Thursday, is understood to be that a widespread focus on 'institutionalised racism' has resulted in a failure to recognise that actions by individuals at all levels contributed to Mubarek's death.

The former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Lord Ramsbotham, yesterday denounced the way the incident was handled. He said that, instead of resisting an independent inquiry until ordered to hold one by the House of Lords, the government should have 'suspended a number of the relevant staff at once', including the people who had placed Mubarek in the same cell as a known racist. The officers responsible at Feltham young offenders' institution, west London, where the murder took place, should also have been suspended.

Ramsbotham said the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, should have empowered him to conduct an immediate, no-holds-barred inquiry.

Having earlier issued stinging criticisms of Feltham, where Mubarek was murdered hours before he was to have been freed in 2000, Ramsbotham said: 'It was a tragedy waiting to happen.' He added: 'I find it totally extraordinary that no one has been made accountable.'

Two of the people said to be named in the report - John Byrd, a prison governor who was also part-time race-relations liaison officer, and Feltham governor Niall Clifford - were promoted after the murder. In his evidence, Byrd said the need to juggle his race-liaison responsibilities with other duties had severely limited the attention he could give to race issues. During questioning, it was suggested that, even as full-time race officer, he may have been reluctant to accept the extent of racism at Feltham.

In a sharp exchange, Mr Justice Keith challenged his focus during his part-time race role on compiling 'ethnic monitoring' statistics. 'Some people may say that [such a] number-crunching exercise, sitting behind a desk, is a substitute for putting the wet cloth around your head and thinking seriously, strategically about what needs to be done.

Byrd rejected the idea that he had taken refuge in report-writing, but accepted that this had been his main focus, adding: 'At that time I do not think the amount of time I had allowed me to have carried out all that in-depth work.'

The judge went on to say that even where ethnic-monitoring had thrown up 'areas of [racial] imbalance' in jail policies, 'I do not get a sense of anything being done in a consistent way.' He also questioned why 1997 race relations recommendations by the prison service appeared not to have been put in place until a year after Mubarek's murder.

Clifford took over as Feltham's governor less than a year before the murder, with a brief to lead a three-year overhaul following Ramsbotham's call for changes. He left to take an area manager's post shortly afterward. During his appearance at the inquiry, it was suggested that by leaving, he had damaged prospects for reform at a 'dramatically failing institution', a suggestion he disputed.

Ramsbotham said yesterday of Clifford's move: 'You don't promote people after something like that.'

    Racist killing report names jail officials, O, 25.6.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1805440,00.html

Number of prisoners given life doubles in 10 years

· Actual time served is 50% longer than a decade ago
· Courts are getting tougher, says prison reformer

Saturday June 17, 2006
Guardian
Duncan Campbell and Eric Allison

The number of prisoners being jailed for life has nearly doubled in the past 10 years and sentences served are now more than 50% longer than they were when first introduced, despite claims that judges are being too lenient.

"Courts have got much tougher, handing down longer sentences and making greater use of custody than ever before," said Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust. "In the heat of the current debate, it is easy to miss that clarity."

According to the latest Home Office statistics, contained on their website, "the largest proportionate increases since April 2005 were for those sentenced to indeterminate sentences (life sentences and indeterminate sentences for public protection), which increased by 20%." The statistics also show nearly 7,000 prisoners are serving such sentences.

Last year there were 6,431 prisoners serving life sentences, a rise of 12% on the previous year. There were fewer than 3,000 "lifers" in 1992. The latest annual figures show 570 people were jailed for life last year, compared to 252 10 years earlier. In 1965, "lifers" served an average of nine years, which had increased to 10.3 years by 1980 and to around 15 years today.

Part of the problem is that no distinction is made in the figures between the prisoners who are serving time for murder and manslaughter and those who are in for lesser offences. "Successive governments have brought in a raft of legislation and at the same time failed to explain sentencing policy to the public," said Ms Lyon.

John Hirst was jailed for life for the manslaughter - on the grounds of diminished responsibility because of mental problems - of his landlady in 1980, with a tariff of 15 years, later increased by the home secretary to 18 years. He was released in 2004 after serving 25 years.

"In those days, they didn't tell you what your tariff was," he said yesterday. "I thought it (the average tariff) was seven or eight years at the time and it has since doubled." He said that all fellow "lifers" he knew of, apart from one, had served more than their tariffs. "The only others who were released were on death's door."

He accepts that the relatives of the woman he killed might have wanted him to spend the rest of his life inside. "The daughter (of his landlady) was in the public gallery at the trial. Until then, I hadn't thought about her at all. She hated me, I could tell from the way she looked at me. She was very angry and I understand that. For the first time, I realised that there was another victim. I had learned my lesson before I was even sentenced."

Organisations representing the victims of murder and manslaughter have also called for clarification. They are angry that prisoners jailed for murder are freed when judges have said they would never be.

Rose Dixon of Support after Murder and Manslaughter (Samm) said that one case involved a man who had killed a woman and badly beaten her sister and who had been told by the judge that life would mean life. "He was released 11 or 12 years later," she said. "Families feel as though nobody listens to them."

Former prison governor Tim Newell, has dealt with many lifers. His last prison, Grendon Underwood, treated prisoners convicted of serious violent and/or sexual offences. He cited instances of young men leaving prison after serving a relatively short sentence, but who will remain on licence - and under supervision - for the rest of their lives. He said that the introduction of life sentences not related to murder or manslaughter had changed the dynamics of the justice system and that the probation services cannot cope. Now a consultant with the Butler Trust, a charity promoting effective care for offenders, Newell said the media emphasis on victims supporting longer sentences is misleading. "When you talk to them - victims - they seek understanding of what has happened and they are often pleased to hear about the positive programmes in prisons which are aimed at making sure that what they have gone through doesn't happen to anybody else."

Around the world

Japan: Age of consent for sexual activity is 13, but under the penal code penalty for rape of a minor is the same as for rape of an adult. Punishment for both offences is a minimum of two years' hard labour. If the victim dies or is injured during the rape, minimum sentence is three years' hard labour. Rape, whether of a minor or an adult, is only prosecuted on complaint.

Denmark: Anyone who has sexual intercourse with a child under 15 is liable to a maximum jail term of eight years. If the child is under 12 or the offender uses coercion, maximum penalty is 12 years. There are provisions for Danish citizens who commit these offences overseas to be tried in Denmark.

Albania: Penal code prohibits sexual intercourse with girls under 14 or girls who have not reached puberty. Punishment is a minimum jail term of five years and a maximum of 15 years. If the intercourse involves serious physical harm, minimum sentence is 10 years and maximum is 20. If victim is killed, or later commits suicide, minimum sentence is 20 years.

Thailand: Thai penal code outlaws sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, with or without consent. Punishment is minimum of seven years and maximum of 20 and a fine of 14,000 to 40,000 baht, but a life sentence can be imposed. If the rape is committed with an intent to murder, or the rapist uses "any gun or explosive", the offender is imprisoned for life.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia is governed by Islamic law (Sharia), which outlaws all sexual intercourse outside marriage, irrespective of age, but the person is discharged from responsibility if she is a minor and did not give consent. Maximum penalty for rape is execution by beheading or stoning.

    Number of prisoners given life doubles in 10 years, G, 17.6.2006, http://society.guardian.co.uk/crimeandpunishment/story/0,,1799778,00.html

Labour bows to 'get tough' prison lobby

· Boast of 1,000 locked up indefinitely
· New rehabilitation scheme shelved

Thursday June 15, 2006
Guardian
Alan Travis and Will Woodward

The full extent of Labour's more punitive approach to law and order was revealed yesterday as Tony Blair boasted that more than 1,000 offenders have been locked away in the last 12 months without a fixed release date under the new breed of "public protection sentences".

The rapid growth in popularity amongst supposedly "soft" judges of this new "indefinite" sentence for dangerous and violent offenders, introduced by David Blunkett when he was home secretary, has taken the criminal justice system by surprise. The chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, has said prisons are already facing problems in dealing with serious offenders who will remain behind bars until the parole board decides they are no longer a risk to the public - until they die if necessary.

As Mr Blair and David Cameron yesterday traded claims over who was toughest in their treatment of life-sentenced prisoners, Home Office ministers were quietly confirming that the introduction of a more liberal regime for 60,000 offenders is being postponed. The delay in the introduction of the new sentence of "custody plus" for short-term prisoners was confirmed yesterday by the prisons minister, Gerry Sutcliffe in a Commons written answer. The sentence was designed to replace prison terms of up to 12 months with a shorter period in custody combined with a longer period of rehabilitation and supervision in the community.

The new home secretary, John Reid, is preparing emergency measures to tighten up parole board procedures in deciding the release date of lifers and the new "public protection" prisoners.

But yesterday's political argument centred around the disclosure that 53 of 500 offenders given a life sentence since 2000 have been released. It emerged that more than half of them had been sentenced under a "two strikes and you're out" law introduced by the former Tory leader, Michael Howard, and implemented by the Labour government in 2000.

Judges had no choice but to impose an automatic life sentence for a second serious violent offence but could exercise discretion in setting the minimum term. The Home Office said yesterday the most common second offence was grievous bodily harm. Those given automatic life sentences under the "two strikes" rule were given tariffs of only three to four years in line with the "going rate" for GBH, and so most have already been released.

The renewed row over sentencing was sparked by John Reid's criticism on Monday of a judge who recommended that paedophile Craig Sweeney serve a minimum five years and 108 days of his life sentence before being considered for parole. The Conservative leader, David Cameron, said sentencing guidelines in the 2003 Criminal Justice Act could allow Sweeney to be released after just six years.

Mr Blair countered that before 2003, Sweeney and others would have been automatically parolled after two-thirds of their sentence. "Under the act, that right to automatic parole was taken away. You and your colleagues voted against that as well." Widening his attack to encompass the Tory voting record on crime, Mr Blair said: "So at every stage - whether it is antisocial behaviour, assets recovery, the Criminal Justice Act, terrorist legislation - you talk tough, but you vote soft."

    Labour bows to 'get tough' prison lobby, G, 15.6.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1797769,00.html

Inquiry reveals jail racism is rife

· Ministers and warders condemned after murder of Asian teen
· Fear over treatment of Muslim prisoners

Sunday June 11, 2006
The Observer
Ned Temko, chief political correspondent

The inquiry into the murder of the Asian teenager Zahid Mubarek by a racist cellmate will paint a damning picture of institutional racism and of individual errors from junior prison officer to ministerial level, The Observer can reveal.

The three-volume report, delivered by the inquiry chair Mr Justice Keith to the Home Secretary John Reid last Monday, will also voice concern over religious insensitivity to Muslim prisoners, as well as targeting failings in the care of prisoners with mental health problems. The Observer understands that individuals will be named for errors of judgment.

In addition to strong criticism of the way Mubarek was treated at Feltham young offenders prison in west London, where he was murdered just hours before he was due to be released in March 2000, the report will include wide-ranging proposals for the prison system as a whole.

It will suggest that while some improvements have been made since Mubarek's killing, major changes are still needed in the way prisons deal with vulnerable prisoners, particularly black and Asian inmates, if further such deaths are to be avoided.

The report will intensify pressure on Reid and the prison service as he moves to sort out the controversy concerning foreign prisoners in a department he has publicly branded not 'fit for purpose'. By criticising not just institutional problems but individual errors, it could also lead to action against individuals within the prison service or government personnel.

The report is scheduled to be published at the end of the month, and a spokesman said yesterday that Keith and Reid had agreed that no comment would be made until then.

But sources who have seen the report after it was handed to the Home Office said that it presented a picture of mistakes at all levels of authority, compounded by a lack of adequate communication and a tendency by individuals to pass on responsibility to others.

The two-year inquiry heard extensive evidence of fundamental failings in the prison service, and at Feltham, in dealing with black and Asian prisoners.

Central to Keith's report, the sources say, was a view that it was necessary to go beyond criticism of 'institutional' failings and recognise that avoiding such tragedies required a sense of accountability at all levels by the individuals involved.

In questioning 62 witnesses, and examining 143 written witness statements and 15,000 pages of documentary evidence, the inquiry heard that the prison service had failed in its basic 'duty of care' to Mubarek.

The inquiry heard evidence of a persistent culture of racism at Feltham, with little or no attention paid to race relations issues, and of a similar pattern of racial prejudice throughout the prison system.

It also heard of 'gladiator games' in which some officers were accused of putting white and black inmates in a shared cell and placing bets on how long it would take for violence to break out.

The report, drawing on specific inquiry evidence, is understood to conclude that responsibility for the errors leading to Mubarek's death must rest with individuals involved at every level.

It is understood that some of the individuals named in the report remain in positions of at least equal seniority to those they had at the time of the murder.

The government resisted the demand by Mubarek's family for a full public inquiry, and it was set up only after the Lords ruled that human rights law justified their push for such an investigation.

In a statement issued after the report was handed to Reid, a spokesman for the inquiry said: 'Mr Justice Keith has looked at the evidence surrounding Zahid's death exhaustively. He has considered, in depth, the views expressed by a wide range of experts ... and borne in mind what he learned through the inquiry's own focus groups and his visits to several prisons. He hopes that throughout the process he has been comprehensive, fair and has left no stone unturned.'

    Inquiry reveals jail racism is rife, O, 11.6.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1794945,00.html