Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, issued an urgent notification for Wandsworth Prison following an inspection by the watchdog raising a number of concerns.
Operation Safeguard:
Operation Safeguard allows offenders to be housed in police cells when jails are full. It follows the extension of the End of Custody Supervised License Scheme, an emergency measure allowing prisoners to be freed before the end of their sentence. It is a temporary measure that is an expensive choice to house inmates who have either been convicted or on remand awaiting trial.
Wandsworth Prison:
It found severe overcrowding, vermin, drugs, violence and rising self-harm rates. The inspection found 80% of prisoners shared cells designed for one person. This is where men spend more than 22 hours a day. In one wing, the prisoners had been unable to shower for five days. Katie Price, the governor of the prison, resigned following the inspection.
R v Ali (Arie) [2023] EWCA Crim 232:
COURT CONSIDERATIONS: Successful appeal against a sentence of six months immediate imprisonment for an offence of assaulting an emergency worker. The Court of Appeal imposed the sentence as a suspended order. Judges are entitled to consider the current situation of prison overcrowding and the impact it has on immediate imprisonment.
ISSUES: Mr Ali raised three grounds of appeal. Firstly, the sentencing judge had erred in not ordering a pre-sentence report. Secondly, the length of the sentence was manifestly excessive. Thirdly, the sentencing judge erred in imposing a sentence of immediate custody.
OVERCROWDING: The consideration of prison overcrowding will apply to sentences which are passed during this situation. It is for the government to communicate to the courts when prison conditions have returned to normal.
Ministry of Justice spokesperson "It is helping us respond to acute capacity pressures caused in part by barristers industrial action and the aftermath of the pandemic."
Until the next Legal Thought,
Elicia Maxwell
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