Overcrowding, understaffing and old IT: chaotic context to prison release errors
If anyone was surprised at the idea that a single prison could accidentally release two people within a matter of days, then a brief glimpse at an inspection report for HMP Wandsworth from last year would quickly explain things.Despite a high-profile escape from the south London jail only months earlier, conditions were so chaotic at the time of the inspection that most staff could not reliably say where all prisoners were during the day, Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, reported with obvious near disbelief.“There was no reliable roll that could assure leaders that all prisoners were accounted for,” he wrote.After the escape of the spying suspect Daniel Khalife, who strapped himself to the underside of a delivery van, “it was unfathomable that leaders had not focused their attention on this area”, he said.As ever with the Prison Service, there is considerable context to this.
Supposed to hold no more than 963 men, Wandsworth generally has about 1,500 kept in cramped and often dirty conditions, at times locked in cells for 22 hours a day.Adding to the chaos is the transient status of many of the prisoners.According to another report on the jail, published this month by one of the independent monitoring boards that go into prisons to look at conditions, only 15% of Wandsworth’s inmates were serving sentences, with the rest either on remand, convicted but not yet sentenced, recalled to prison, or immigration cases.Presiding over all this are about 85 staff, and often fewer.According to Taylor’s report, a combination of sickness and training commitments meant that at any one time a third of prison staff were not on frontline duties.
Those who were on the prison wings would generally be inexperienced,Across the prison service in England and Wales, every year about one in seven junior prison staff leave, and for senior officers the departure rate is one in eight,At Wandsworth, Taylor found that this mass of inexperienced prison officers made implementing change difficult,“Staff were not wilfully neglectful, they simply did not understand their role and they lacked direction, training and consistent support from leaders,” he wrote,It should be noted that in the wake of Taylor’s report some changes were made.
The more recent independent inspection said that while it was still grossly overpopulated and understaffed, Wandsworth now enjoyed “positive new leadership and a sense of strategic direction”.As a marker of this, while the prison was found to have no fewer than 81 identifiable security failings in September 2023 after Khalife escaped, by May this year that had been reduced to just four, although one of these was marked as “critical”.But at the same time, conditions remain objectively grim, with more than 700 incidents of self-harm over the previous year, four deaths and more than 700 assaults, even if all these metrics are gradually improving.Justice officials say it is perhaps unfair to label the prison as dysfunctional; more it is the inevitable result of very many people doing their best to improve matters in near-impossible circumstances in a cramped, inner-city Victorian prison.Added to all this, and seemingly central to the inadvertent releases of Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, an Algerian sex offender who remains at large, and Billy Smith, a fraudster who handed himself back to the prison on Thursday, is antiquated or failing IT systems, meaning much of the logistics for releases and transfers are done by hand.
Mark Fairhurst, who heads the Prison Officers’ Association, said the incidents this week seemed to have been down to clerical errors, and his organisation “has repeatedly warned of the mounting pressures on staff and the outdated administrative systems across our prisons”.He said: “Prisons throughout the country are underfunded, understaffed and operating under relentless strain.Dedicated staff are doing their utmost, but too often they are left without the proper support, training or technology to do their jobs safely and effectively.”
Mirepoix kimchi and vegetarian umami chilli: Kenji Morimoto’s recipes for cooking with homemade ferments
Cooking with ferments brings a tremendous amount of flavour to whatever you’re making, and it’s a great way to showcase how an ingredient evolves through the application of heat. The idea of combining a Korean preservation method with a French technique is exactly what I love about creativity in the kitchen. This mirepoix kimchi is not just a fun ferment to dot on savoury oatmeal or eat alongside cheese, but it also acts as the backbone for a plant-based, umami-filled chilli.This versatile, umami-rich paste is a twist on the classic mirepoix and can be used to add a hit of flavour to everything from soups to marinades, or even enjoyed as is.Prep 10 min Ferment 2 weeks+ Makes 500ml jar150g carrot 150g white onion 150g celery 13½g salt (or 3% of the total weight of the first three ingredients)½ tbsp red miso, or fish sauce½ tbsp sugar 15g gochugaru chilli flakesRoughly chop the vegetables (there is no need to peel the carrots if they have been rinsed), then put them in a food processor
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At these places of worship, secular and churchgoing diners place their orders for coffee, curry puffs and za’atar pastries, served with kindnessGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailOn Sunday mornings, thousands stream through Our Lady of Lebanon Co-Cathedral, a Lebanese Maronite Catholic church in Sydney’s western suburbs. In between back-to-back mass services, worshippers rush to its onsite cafe, Five Loaves.“Sunday is our busiest day,” says Yasmin Salim, who has fronted the counter for eight years. Lines are long and diners’ appetites are large: a single customer might ask for 10 pizzas and 10 pastries flavoured with za’atar, the Middle Eastern herb mix. “It’s like at Maccas, everyone wants their french fries,” says Salim
How to make rotis – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass
These staple north Indian flatbreads come in a variety of forms – thinner, softer versions cooked on a flat tawa are also known as chapatis, while phulkas employ the same dough, but are held over a flame until they puff like a balloon. Either way, they’re great for scooping up meat and vegetables, or for mopping up sauce. Years of practice makes perfect, but this recipe is a good place to start.Prep 25 min Rest 30 min Cook 15 min Makes 8165g atta (chapati) flour, plus extra for dusting (see step 1)¼ tsp fine salt 1 tsp neutral oil Melted ghee or butter, to serve (optional)If you can’t find atta flour, which is a flavourful, very finely milled wholemeal flour that can be found in south Asian specialists and larger supermarkets, food writer Roopa Gulati recommends using a 50:50 mixture of plain flour and wholemeal flour instead. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl, whisk briefly, then make a well in the middle
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High in protein, low in fat, the 70s ‘superfood’ is having another moment. Its fans say you can do almost anything with it. But should you?When I heard that cottage cheese was experiencing some kind of renaissance, my first thought was: “This is what comes of complacency.” I’d thought of cottage cheese as being safely extinct, but per capita consumption statistics show that, while it fell slightly out of favour, it never really went away. And now it’s having a moment
Franc, Canterbury, Kent: ‘Just great, great cooking’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants
Certain new restaurants I’m lured to semi-hypnotically, so rumours a few months back of an impending new venture from Dave Hart and Polly Pleasence slotted straight on to my “I’ll be there!” list. I still remember a long lunch seven years ago at their previous venture, the Folkestone Wine Company, where a piece of perfect pan-fried hake fillet topped with luscious squid and a zesty gremolata had me actually gasping with happiness. This was truly great cooking.And I knew who the chef was, too, because I could see him through a hatch cooking my lunch while I sipped my appassimento. Hart has worked for Stephen Harris at The Sportsman near Whitstable, and over the years has run several other places all across Kent
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