Prisons

What has become of the Wellcome Collection?

5 October 2024 9:00 am

In 2022 the Wellcome Collection caused a stir by closing its Medicine Man exhibition on the grounds that it was…

Portrait of the week: prisoners are freed, Ted Baker closes and train drivers announce strikes

24 August 2024 9:00 am

Home Emergency measures, known as Operation Early Dawn, were brought in to ease prison overcrowding. Defendants would be summoned to…

Let prisoners phone home

3 August 2024 9:00 am

‘A society is measured by the treatment of its prisoners,’ Winston Churchill said. Last year, in England and Wales, every…

Can Labour solve our prisons crisis?

13 July 2024 9:00 am

There is no doubt that the new government (and in particular the prisons minister, James Timpson) is faced with a…

The toxic prison attitude that can cost inmates their lives

17 September 2023 3:00 am

David Morgan, a 35 year-old man, told staff he’d taken an overdose. A nurse decided the man seemed drunk and…

Our prison culture is more barbaric than it was in 1823: Elizabeth Fry ‘The Angel of Prisons’ reviewed

3 September 2022 9:00 am

The Angel of Prisons dramatises the life of the penal reformer Elizabeth Fry, who lived near Canning Town. She married…

Our prisons are woefully unprepared for Ali Harbi Ali

14 April 2022 8:52 pm

The Islamist terrorist Ali Harbi Ali will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the murder of Sir…

The case for isolating terrorists in prison is stronger than ever

31 July 2021 12:23 am

Watching last night’s ITV report from inside two of Britain’s highest security jails was an odd experience for me. The…

Held me so fast I was outbid on eBay: Clemency reviewed

18 July 2020 9:00 am

Clemency stars Alfre Woodard as a prison warden on death row whose job is beginning to take its toll, and…

prison

Locked up in lockdown

25 May 2020 2:38 am

COIVD-19 has turned us all into prisoners: draconian lockdown orders, solitary confinement, monotonous food, limited fresh air and exercise, irregular…

Which country locks up the most people?

17 August 2019 9:00 am

Girls only Polish village Miejsce Odrzanskie was reported not to have had a single boy born in the past decade,…

Ministers shouldn’t be able to escape their mistakes

4 May 2019 1:55 am

There is little doubt that Rory Stewart is amply-qualified for his belated promotion to the cabinet. The new International Development…

Letters: The US sanctions against Venezuela have always been about regime change

1 September 2018 9:00 am

Venezuelan sanctions Sir: Contrary to the impression given by Jason Mitchell, Venezuela does not have a socialist economy (‘Maduro’s madness’,…

Inmates making crack pipes. Gangmasters run drug and extortion rackets from the inside

In chaotic Venezuela, life is better in prison

3 February 2018 9:00 am

‘I murder people!’ says Elanger matter-of-factly in response to my question about what he does for a living. From the…

Portrait of the week

13 February 2016 9:00 am

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that if Britain left the European Union, France could stop allowing British officials…

Could I have prevented a Kray murder?

5 December 2015 9:00 am

Could I have prevented a Kray murder?

Portrait of the week

14 November 2015 9:00 am

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, outlined four changes he sought in Britain’s membership of the EU. He wanted to…

Four great demolition disasters

17 October 2015 8:00 am

Bang goes the plan The demolition of six tower blocks in Glasgow failed when the top half of two of…

Would Jesse Boot have agreed with Stefano Pessina? (Clue: he called his employees ‘comrade’)

7 February 2015 9:00 am

Right Boot, left Boot What would Jesse Boot, who built Britain’s largest chemist chain from his father’s herbal shops, made…

Under this government, our prison system is falling apart

7 February 2015 9:00 am

In the past two years, our prisons have gone from places of rehabilitation to pits of despair

Who cleans skyscrapers?

23 August 2014 9:00 am

Tough at the top The clocks on Big Ben were cleaned by abseiling window-cleaners. Some other big cleaning/painting jobs: —…

Are pigeons braver than dogs?

3 May 2014 9:00 am

Animal spirit A labrador blown up with her handler while sniffing for bombs in Afghanistan in 2008 became the 64th…