Voices: I’ve spent decades inside prisons – here’s how I’ll fix them for good

I have spent decades in and out of this country’s prisons. But I had never seen them as bad as they were when I became prisons minister, almost a year ago.

The sad truth is that, on taking office, we inherited prisons that were so full, they were close to collapse. The consequences of this perilous position cannot be overstated. If prisons run out of space, courts are forced to halt their trials. Soon thereafter, the police must stop their arrests.