The Tories hand more powers to the cops in queen’s speech

source: Socialist Worker
published: 10 May 2022

The Tories unveiled yet more repressive measures in the queen’s speech on Tuesday. It’s an attempt to resurrect a set of crackdown powers that didn’t make it into the police bill that was passed recently.

They include new offences to stop protesters “locking on” to infrastructure and an extension of stop and search powers. It will also become illegal to obstruct transport projects. It’s a direct threat to groups such as Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil. But the cops and the state will use them far more widely.

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Record levels of self-harm found at Derbyshire women’s prison

source: Guardian (Society)
published: 9 February 2022

Inmates held in a women’s prison are making 1,000 calls a month to Samaritans amid record levels of self-harm, increased violence and low safety levels usually only seen in men’s facilities, a damning report has found.

Nearly a third of women held at Foston Hall in Derbyshire, which holds 272 residents, told inspectors they felt unsafe, while the use of force in the prison has doubled over nearly three years and is the highest on the women’s prison’s estate.

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Women prisoners making 1,000 calls a month to Samaritans, says report

source: The Justice Gap
published: 11 February 2022

Women were making around 1,000 calls each month to the Samaritans from a prison in Derbyshire, according prison inspectors. A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons has found instances of self-harm were the highest in the women’s prison estate at HMP Foston Hall and, for the first time, a women’s prison scored ‘poor’ in more than a decade ago with the inspectorate calling it ‘a rare and unexpected finding’.

The watchdog criticised the lack of any strategy to reduce self-harm in the prison which holds 272 women and serious attempts by women to take their own lives were not always investigated. Messages left on the prison’s crisis hotline had not been checked for six weeks on the day of the inspection.

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