We had a similar 'national crisis' last month with no fatalities where the CJS swung into action to punish rioters with days notice. This 'national crisis' where kids are murdering kids with knives weekly, gets a sleb endorsed talking shop. We *know* how to fix this already.

Not often I'm seen nodding along with the Morning Star but this from POA's Steve Gillen hits the spot. Gaining a few hundred spaces away from bust will not solve the problems that turn prisons into violent, purposeless human warehouses. Broken staff can't help fix broken people.

Never easy to write about one of your own. I feel lucky to have known David. Life is so very fragile . David Knowles, journalist behind Telegraph’s Ukraine: The Latest podcast, dies aged 32 telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/0…

Good article by Danny Shaw . But the idea of ending community probation supervision for low tariff criminals isn't just political kryptonite - those sentenced to 12 months or less are often the most prolific offenders in scale if not seriousness. spectator.co.uk/article/thousa…

Your Da. You couldn't lie straight in a bed.

The woods are healing, as anyone knows, from pauper to Princess. 👏

Having friends who disagree with you politically is fine.

I've just been on Sky News talking w/ Kay Burley about prisoner mass early release scheme - the worst strategy apart from all alternatives. But The Labour Party ministers, get the potatoes out of your mouths - this is risky & reoffending that would otherwise not happen is inevitable.

'This was a hospital pass that the previous government gifted the new administration' Former prison governor Ian Acheson joins Kay Burley ahead of 1,700 prisoners in England and Wales being let go before their sentences are served Read more: trib.al/Rx0iR33

I think the University kebab industry can relax a while longer.

The images are seared in the mind indelibly. The intimacy and intentional cruelty are almost inconceivable. But bearing witness to that gleeful, hellish barbarity of 7/10 is all we can do. #Hamas are the enemies of civilisation.

Oysters. #SeaSnot

Well, a few weeks earlier than many of them would otherwise be back in from a knackered system with some of the worst recidivism rates in western Europe. No consolation for victims of course. telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/1…

Just back in from a closed evidence session at House of Lords Home Affairs Cttee with 2 excellent colleagues concerned in prison reform. I spoke about three priorities beyond overcrowding: 1. Front line prison staff welfare 2. The prison crime/terror nexus 3. Enterprise prisons.

If you want to see what the humiliation of the state looks like, here it is. A legacy of a lunatic ideological vandalism of the prison and probation service we all warned against via rank planning incompetence leading to justice by logistics not just deserts. Dire.

I am proud to have played a v small role as a contributor to the best current affairs magazine in the country, brilliantly led & populated by writers I am frequently in awe of. We need intelligent thought diversity more than ever and I know The Spectator will continue to deliver.

Some excellent points here. But getting and keeping the right front line staff in prisons is actually the foundation of anything hopeful. Without suitable and sufficent numbers of officers clearly and confidently in charge of Prisons now in freefall everything else is just noise.

At last. A dancing organisation I can thrive in.

I am already being told of a probation officer who had an unsustainable workload to begin with who is now off sick having been handed a huge number of people eligible for early release to risk assess. The moral injury in HM Prison and Probation service is a national scandal.

I'm going to be in ConservativeHome shortly writing about how the prisons crisis should inform behaviour in the Tory leadership election. Two of the lessons are honesty and humility. 🙄