The Prison Oracle

#ThePrisonOracle
The Prisons Handbook 2026 - available now at pre-publication prices, with discounts for serving prisoners, prison staff, prison libraries and charities, prisons.org.uk

#ThePrisonOracle
The Government is to extend Medication to Manage Problematic Sexual Arousal (MMPSA) to 24 prisons - and they've now confirmed they're seriously considering mandating MMPSA as 'treatment' in future.
Is it ethical?
Does it work?
prisons.org.uk/news-desk

#ThePrisonOracle
The 40-page September 2025 edition of Converse, the largest circulation national monthly prisons newspaper for E&W is out today - published in print, and on in-cell technology, and on 2,500 offline laptops in 90 prisons too! prisons.org.uk

Pentonville Prison: Chief inspector of Prisons issues Urgent Notification after discovering 'Prisoners Held Illegally and in Chaotic Unsafe Conditions.' Full details on our News Desk.

prisons.org.uk/news-desk

10 things to help the Prisons Minister sleep at night
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

#ThePrisonOracle
The 40-page May 2025 edition of Converse, the largest circulation national monthly prisons newspaper for E&W is out today - published in print, and on in-cell technology, and on 2,500 offline laptops in 90 prisons too!
prisons.org.uk

#ThePrisonOracle
The 40-page April 2025 edition of Converse, the largest circulation national monthly prisons newspaper for E&W is out today - published in print, and on in-cell technology, and on 2,500 offline laptops in 90 prisons too!
prisons.org.uk/publications...

#ThePrisonOracle
35 years ago today the Strangeways Riot kicked off 25 days of violence, destruction and death across the prison estate; has Strangeways been a lesson we've failed to heed - or has it become one we have ensured could never happen again?
prisons.org.uk/news-desk

#ThePrisonOracle
The 40-packed-pages of the March 2025 edition of Converse, the largest circulation national prisons newspaper in England and Wales, is out now - prisons.org.uk/publications...

#ThePrisonOracle
The Independent Sentencing Review has published Part 1 of its final report that provides a comprehensive explanation of why and how prison policy isn't working.
Read the Report and an analysis of it on our News Desk
prisons.org.uk/news-desk
#sentencing #prison #overcrowding

#ThePrisonOracle
We can now report on the 'extraordinary' fine imposed on the Ministry of Justice UK over prison inmate deaths.
prisons.org.uk/news-desk
#inquest #fined #moj #prison #deaths #coroner #prisoner

#ThePrisonOracle
The 40-page February 2025 edition of Converse, the largest circulation national monthly prisons newspaper for E&W is out today - published in print, and on in-cell technology, and on 2,500 offline laptops in 90 prisons too!
prisons.org.uk/publications...

#ThePrisonOracle
Southport child killer Axel Rudakubana has had his sentence altered today by a Judge at Liverpool Crown Court due to a legal technicality.
prisons.org.uk/news-desk

#ThePrisonOracle
Parole Board decision quashed for trying to shoehorn too many oral hearings into one day creating inadequate hearing times.
Access the case details and judgment via our news desk
prisons.org.uk/news-desk
#parole #quashed #inadequacy #impropriety #prison #prisoner

The difference between lived experience & academic research is a simple one; the former requires lessons are learnt from true knowledge, the latter's need for further research prevents it from ever reaching a conclusion
It's only when the latter yields to the former, that real progress is possible.

#ThePrisonOracle
First successful legal challenge to the operation of Prison Rule 46 segregation for terrorists and alleged extremist groomers - access the case via our news desk
prisons.org.uk/news-desk
#rule46 #prison #segregation #terrorism #extremism

#ThePrisonOracle
Latest figures show there were almost 3,000 fires in the prisons of #England and #Wales in 2024 - eight every day - with some prisons having none at all, while others had over 130.
prisons.org.uk/news-desk
#fire #prison #safety

#ThePrisonOracle
The Ministry of Justice names 13 prisons currently designated as 'Death in Custody Cluster Sites' who are being given additional support to reduce the number of deaths within them.
prisons.org.uk/news-desk
#deathsincustody #prison #deaths #prisoners #safety

#ThePrisonOracle
#IMB Chair appears in court charged with #misconduct in public office and conspiracy to convey #drugs into a prison after an investigation by NWROCU and the HMPPS counter-corruption unit - two prisoners and two others have also been charged.
prisons.org.uk/news-desk

Helen Pitcher has been made a scapegoat. The decision to wrongly reject the original #Malkinson appeal was 10 years before she joined the CCRC. I am sad to see her go, proud that she stood her ground, and it's ironic her leaving is in itself just one more miscarriage of justice.

#ThePrisonOracle
CCRC Chair, Helen Pitcher, has resigned saying: "I'm a scapegoat over the Malkinson case"
Read her resignation letter.
prisons.org.uk/news-desk
#ccrc #justice #resignation #malkinson #criminalcasesreviewcommission #miscarriage #prison #prisoner #malkinson #appeal

#ThePrisonOracle
'National Security Threat': Drones dropping drugs and weapons into Maximum Security Prisons
prisons.org.uk/news-desk
#drugs #guns #weapons #prisons #nationalsecurity

The Guardian view on capital punishment: an upsurge in executions should concern us all | Editorial Editorial: The vast majority of countries have outlawed the death penalty. Yet the annual toll is growing – and Donald Trump wants to increase its use

This has to be the ultimate of all hypocrisies:
Judge to defendant: "You have been convicted of a premeditated killing, and for that reason we are going to murder you."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
#capitalpunishment #deathpenalty #hypocrisy

How much of an effect is this drug consumption room in Glasgow, that opens on Monday, likely to have on reducing the number of drug deaths in the city?
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
#drug #deaths #Glasgow #policy

Paddy Hill, who has died aged 80, was the best known of the Birmingham Six who were wrongly convicted of planting the pub bombs that killed 21 people in 1974.
Read his Obituary on our News Desk
RIP Paddy
prisons.org.uk/news-desk
#birmingham6 #miscarriage #justice

Sir Hartley Shovel the famous building contractor jailed for ten years last year after being convicted of selling millions of pounds worth of defective building materials to the MOJ, broke out of the newly built Bedwyn Prison this evening when the prison wall collapsed and the main gates fell off 😂

A cell in Wandsworth prison

The Labour government has now confirmed the 'public sector' is not allowed to bid for prison maintenance contracts in England and Wales - only 'private sector' companies are being invited to bid for these.
Full details prisons.org.uk/news-desk
#prisons #public #private #maintenance #labour

YouTube video by Sky News - Courts Prison officer jailed over sex with inmate

#Sentencing video: former #Wandsworth #Prison Officer jailed for #sexual activities with #prisoners.
youtu.be/ObKasDnBuI0?...

Prisoner who took MoJ to court says he remains in isolation 20 months later Kevan Thakrar still awaits judgment after case alleging unlawful solitary confinement was heard in April 2023

How on earth can this happen?
How can a judge still not have handed down her judgment nearly two years after the hearing ended - and knowing a #prisoner still sits in #solitary #confinement as a result?

theguardian.com/society/2025...