The Guardian reports that the chief inspector of prisons has warned that maximum security prisons in England and Wales are less stable, more difficult to run and potentially less safe than nine years ago.
Dame Anne Owers says maximum security prisons have been remarkably safe places but this was threatened by growing numbers of young men, often from an inner-city gang culture, serving increasingly long sentences who might feel they have little to lose. In her valedictory Prison Reform Trust lecture in London tonight, she says the instability is being fuelled by increasing gang activity and a small minority of terrorist prisoners which means maximum security jails need sophisticated, continuous management.
