The Prison Reform Trust has called for an urgent moratorium on the planned roll out of PAVA spray to prison officers in the adult male estate.

It warns that the roll out, which is due to begin in the New Year, is likely to do more harm than good and undermine the safety of prisoners and prison officers.

After the decision to roll out PAVA was announced in early October, the Prison Minister Rory Stewart said that PAVA would only be used in “exceptional circumstances” to protect staff from the threat or perceived threat of serious violence.

The first full year’s-worth of Police Use of Force statistics have been published. In April 2017 the Home Office introduced new forms aimed at providing an accurate record of the type and frequency of officers use force on a day to day basis. Every time an officer uses any type of force they must report the details.

Around 70 frontline officers are already trained in the use of this vital piece of protective equipment - more officers having access to this is welcome news. This news follows a successful trial in police custody, with the decision made to extend the use of spit and bite guards to help protect police officers and staff from the abhorrent and vile act of spitting and biting.  It is expected that the guards will be in police vehicles initially, but if the need arises, they may become standard individual issue.

This two-day summit is the sixth event of its kind, jointly organised by the RCGP Secure Environments Group, Broadmoor, Ashworth, and Rampton high secure hospitals, Spectrum, Care UK, NHS England, Martindale Pharma, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, HMP Berwyn, West London NHS Trust and Mersey Care NHS Trust.

Following on from the successful event in Glasgow in 2017, the summit will focus on ‘Continuity of Care – safety through continuity’. There is a need to embolden the links between primary and secondary care for people resident in secure settings and the summit organisers are looking to showcase examples of good practice on how organisations can improve on care transition to the community.

The UK has the highest number of life-sentenced prisoners of any country in Europe, the latest edition of the Prison Reform Trust’s Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile reveals.

Editor Victoria Galligan chaired the speakers' sessions at the recent Custodial Facilities Forum and outlines the networking event which welcomed delegates from across the sector…

The third annual custodial facilities forum took place in November at Whittlebury Hall in Northamptonshire. Organised by Stable Events, the forum gathered both supplier delegates and project delegates, allowing them one-to-one meeting time, the opportunity to network with fellow professionals, and hear from speakers in the field. This was a useful event in which the public and private sector could make vital connections and share ideas.

A public poll exposes the scale of the crisis facing police forces with almost half of the population saying they have never seen a police officer patrolling the beat at night.

The poll, carried out by the Daily Express, shows overwhelming public support to reverse the savage cuts to policing budgets and reveals 81% of the public are more concerned about being a victim of crime than they were five years ago.

Andy Robertson, an escape artist whose specialty is escaping from locked prison cells, offers an insight into getting out of "impossible" situations…

Prison escapes in the UK are rare – but then how have so many prisoners over the years escaped out of seemingly high-security prisons all from the UK and other parts of the world? That’s the question that intrigued me, I had to know how they were getting out and whether it was by flaws in security, or skill, or just plain luck! 

Over many years I studied locks and doors used as well as the old and modern type prison and jail buildings. I spoke to many people from prison historians to those who were presently in the profession linked to prison security.  I also learned the skills and knowledge as an escape artist over many years from fellow escape artists, finally in 2017 I had the ability to escape any prison and I was soon to be challenged to prove it.

Serco announces that it has signed up to the national ‘Ban the Box’ campaign from Business in the Community (BitC), which is creating a fair chance for ex-offenders to compete for jobs and bringing down the £15 billion a year cost of reoffending.

In signing up to the campaign, Serco has agreed to ban the tick box from job application forms asking about unspent criminal convictions across its UK operations and has committed to considering applicants’ skills, experience and ability to do the job before asking about criminal convictions. This means that candidates with a criminal record can now apply for jobs with Serco with the knowledge that they will be assessed on their ability to do the job before any convictions are fairly considered.  

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