Shock figures reveal state of UK’s brutal prisons: Report

A new investigation has found that two-thirds of prisons in the UK are providing their inmates with inadequate conditions or unacceptable treatment.

Standards in nearly 70 percent of prisons are unsatisfactory in at least one respect, with two in five jails deemed to be unacceptably unsafe, found an Observer analysis of hundreds of inspections covering 118 institutions, according to The Guardian.

The investigation examined areas from standards for safety to respect for prisoners to access to purposeful activities as well as help when they leave the institution.

Eighty out of 118 adult jails in England and Wales were providing insufficient or poor standards in at least one area, with only 7 percent of prisons receiving a “good” rating in all four categories.

While poor or insufficient safety was a major problem in 44 percent of the prisons, 47 percent offered inmates insufficient or poor access to meaningful activities and the prisoners were left locked in cells for very long periods.

With regard to assistance to prisoners after they leave, two in five prisons were providing inadequate help.

Since the last inspection, conditions in prisons have deteriorated in 41 percent of the prisons, with the worst-performing prisons and overcrowded being Bristol, Guys Marsh, Liverpool, Nottingham and Wormwood Scrubs.

The state of some of these detention centers is “deeply disturbing,” Rory Stewart, the prisons minister, wrote for the Observer.

EA