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Prison conditions condemned (1)

01 January 1991

Prison conditions condemned
artdoc July=1993

Judge Stephen Tumim, Chief Inspector of Prisons, has condemned
conditions at Bristol prison for failing to improve since the
riots of 1990. His report expresses concern at the treatment of
gravely ill patients in the prison's health centre and describes
their condition as `dangerous and unacceptable'.
In a separate report Tumim is even more critical of conditions
at Cardiff prison which were described as `unhygienic and gross'.
His comments followed a visit to the prison, which was built in
1827 and holds over 400 prisoners, last October.
Conditions inside Wolds prison, near Hull, have been criticised
by The Prison Reform Trust (PRT). Wolds is Britain's first
private prison this century and is run by Group 4 Remand
Services. It holds approximately 235 remand prisoners. The PRT
report says that life inside the prison is aimless and that there
is widespread evidence of drug abuse and violence.
An independent inquiry, by the Howard League, into conditions
at Feltham Young Offenders Centre, where four boys were found
hanged within eight months in 1991, recommended that "the centre
should no longer exist in its present condition."
Guardian 5.4.93, 14.4.93, 23.4.93; Independent 25.5.93.


Statewatch vol 3 no 3 May-June 1993