The independent monitoring board report on HMP Wormwood Scrubs is the latest in a series of stark, critical independent monitoring board and HM inspectorate of prisons reports that reveal a prison service buckling under the strain of unprecedented staff and budget cuts (Wormwood Scrubs cuts led to ‘chaos and dysfunction’, 8 October). If, as Eric Allison reports (Grayling’s prisons plan? Shoot the messenger, 8 October), justice ministers are considering making changes, they would be better advised to listen to a well-respected, independent chief inspector, read the information submitted by IMBs and act to put things right rather than ignore a growing crisis in our jails.
Juliet Lyon
Director, Prison Reform Trust
• The substance of Alan Travis’s report on the deteriorating state of the prison service would find few dissenters among officers or prisoners, but it is worth pointing out that the designation “official watchdog” does the independent monitoring boards no favours. Every prison and immigration removal centre has an IMB to monitor standards and procedures. Recruitment to them is a struggle. The IMBs are crucial to the prison system and any opportunity to raise their profile should be taken.
Professor Simon Miller
Ashburton, Devon
• Surely the answer to George Monbiot’s problem with the penalty clause in the contract for the privatisation of the probation service (Our bullying corporations are the new enemy within, 8 October) is to declare it unconstitutional (a government cannot bind a future government to a particular action) and an unfair contract – therefore rendering it invalid and unenforceable. Simple.
Jane Sullivan
Beckenham, Kent
