Carl Cattermole’s vivid picture of the background to the Pentonville murder last week (What a killing in Pentonville tells us about our prisons, 21 October) omits one aspect of the analysis. The security quotient in our prisons is now so great that when the pressures build, major disturbances are much less likely than was the case 20 years ago. I was a member of Lord Woolf’s inquiry team into the riots at Strangeways and elsewhere in 1990. Today the tensions in prison result in greater interpersonal violence, prisoner-on-prisoner and prisoner-on-staff. The dangers are as great, however, and the solutions remain the same. It is imperative that the prison population be significantly reduced. And it is to be hoped that the minister will consider closely the proposition that local authority consortiums (including mayors and PCCs) be given devolved custody budgets so as to follow the outstanding example of the youth custody sector to get short-term prisoners (particularly those with drug-related and mental health problems) into community-based projects as an alternative to imprisonment
Rod Morgan
Professor emeritus of criminal justice, University of Bristol
• Last Tuesday’s tragic stabbings at Pentonville prison should shock us all to the core (Analysis: ‘Grimmest of the grim’ must shut, 20 October). It is unthinkable that we should now contemplate sending more people to Pentonville, or many other prisons like it, as part of a strategy to “boost the morale” of magistrates (MPs recommend extension of magistrates’ powers, theguardian.com, 19 October). The government’s promised white paper on prisons next month must signal an end to our 25-year love affair with imprisonment. Lives depend on it.
Peter Dawson
Director, Prison Reform Trust
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