SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life
A fresh look at our prison estate
At the start of the Prison Officers Association annual conference in Eastbourne, general secretary STEVE GILLAN reflects on changing attitudes to what is happening behind those high walls
Our criminal justice system is broken, from a decade of court closures causing huge backlogs to a failed privatisation experiment destroying the probation service. But it is in our prisons where savage budget cuts and government negligence and have caused the most damage and created the most danger.
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THERE seems to be much more interest in prisons among the public, press and politicians since our last conference a year ago — and that can only be a good thing.
For far too long, the reality of living and working behind bars has been hidden by the high walls and huge gates my members pass through every day to keep their communities safe.
Out of sight, out of mind, so the saying goes. But the pandemic threw a spotlight on the state of our jails and gave people a taste of life under lockdown.
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