The blight of Britain’s prisons

Judith FelinehmpMJ loved being a prison governor. The former boss of Maidstone in Kent relished the challenge of helping prisoners “become better people”. Small, everyday interactions were a crucial part of that, she reckoned. But twin challenges—a rising prison population and a shortage of staff—meant this was becoming increasingly unachievable. “I didn’t want to stop loving my job,” she says. So last year she took early retirement.Ms Feline’s experiences mirror those of innumerable prison workers. In October data from the Ministry of Justice (o) revealed the prison population of England and Wales had hit an all-time high—only a few hundred short of official capacity. Most British prisons have long been overcrowded. A dramatic escape from Wandsworth prison in London this summer showed it was holding more than 1,600 men, though it was built for 1,000.