The Latest Breaking News from Mark Fairhurst

Why have England and Wales nearly run out of prison spaces?

Fewer than 100 spaces remain in men’s prisons, reports say, and magistrates have been told to delay hearings.

Al Jazeera · Aug 29, 2024

Emergency prison overcrowding measure activated as more rioters face jail sentences

The Government has triggered an emergency plan to avoid prison overcrowding as rioters are sentenced

Evening Standard · Aug 19, 2024

Prison crowding emergency measures a ‘sticking plaster’, Starmer told

Ministers activate Operation Early Dawn, so defendants can be held in police cells as more are sentenced over riots

The Guardian - UK · Aug 19, 2024

Terrorism suspect may have had help to escape prison, says Met chief

Police also confirm they are searching for signs of former soldier Daniel Abed Khalife in Richmond Park in London

The Guardian - UK · Sep 8, 2023

Prison officers 'at breaking point' as sick leave for mental stress surges

The Prison Officers Association blames the issue on poor pay and jails being overcrowded, violent and short-staffed. National chair Mark Fairhurst wants trained counsellors employed on-site at every prison

Daily Mirror · Apr 8, 2023

Almost 1,000 prison guards hospitalised in just one year after attacks by lags

Mark Fairhurst, chairman of union the Prison Officers Association, called the country's prisons "the most hostile workplace in Western Europe" and said the most violent group of prisoners were the under 18s

Daily Mirror · Feb 18, 2023

UK prisons 'most hostile workplaces in Western Europe' as days off with stress soar

The Prison Officers’ Association says staff are facing mental health issues because they’re operating in the most hostile ­workplaces in Western Europe

Daily Mirror · Dec 3, 2022