UK: Holloway prison: cut remand numbers
01 July 1996
The new Chief Inspector of Prisons, sir David Ramsbotham, has called for a sharp reduction in the number of women held on remand at Holloway prison, north London. Ramsbotham made his remarks as part of an official report into the prison.
Last December Rowbotham led an inspection team walk-out at the prison in protest at unsanitary conditions and draconian security measures. Then, his team complained that inmates, half of whom were on remand, were locked in their cells for 23 hours a day and that the jail was infested with rats and cockroaches.
In June he received a dressing down from Home Secretary, Michael Howard who is reported to have instructed Rowbotham not to comment on matters of policy. At a second, "acrimonious" meeting at the end of June the Inspector was warned not to issue statements to the media. As a result of the Home Secretary's intervention the Inspector's latest comments were largely limited to noting improvements in conditions at the squalid womens' prison.