Former prison governor John Podmore has warned that the UK penal system faces a deepening crisis, with many inmates having “nothing to lose” both inside and outside prison. Writing in response to a recent report by the Prison Governors’ Association, Podmore said the problem goes far beyond the risk of attacks on notorious prisoners like Ian Huntley.
Podmore, a former governor of HMPs Belmarsh, Brixton and Swaleside, and a former prisons inspector, said thousands of prisoners arrive already trapped in cycles of addiction, trauma, homelessness and untreated mental illness, with little stake in life beyond the prison walls. He argued that prison rarely repairs this damage and often compounds it, with rehabilitation giving way to containment and idleness, and regimes that in practice resemble solitary confinement.
He added that release often changes little, with former prisoners monitored but rarely supported into stable housing, employment, education or treatment. Unsurprisingly, many return to custody even more embittered and dysfunctional.
Podmore concluded that until ministers confront these wider social and institutional failures, and hold the leadership of the prison and probation services properly accountable, the crisis will deepen and serious violence will become increasingly endemic.
