The UK’s prison system is in serious trouble. That sentence should come as no surprise to regular readers. But a damning independent review by former prisons watchdog Dame Anne Owers has revealed the whole system came close to total collapse on three separate occasions within a 12 month period.
The report lays the blame squarely at the feet of successive governments. Between autumn 2023 and summer 2024, ministers repeatedly failed to get a grip on the growing crisis – so much so that experts were left wondering whether inaction was a political choice. Senior civil servants, fearing a total breakdown of the criminal justice system, kept meticulous records of key decisions and documents in case there was ever a public or parliamentary inquiry.
