Pentonville prison criticised over ‘degrading’ conditions
Published: 06 August, 2010
by PETER GRUNER
PENTONVILLE prison has been criticised for the “degrading” living conditions of prisoners and the lack of purposeful activity.
The ready availability of drugs and mobile phones was also a problem, according to the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) covering April 2009 to March 2010.
Pentonville topped the mandatory drug testing league of London prisons between May 2009 and February 2010, with positive-test figures running in the range 17½ per cent to 22 per cent.
The reports says learning and skills programmes are also highly inadequate.
Overcrowding and under-funding have led to an even smaller proportion of prisoners’ time being used constructively to prepare them for a non-criminal life after release.
The report says Pentonville’s mixed and transitory population, old and overcrowded buildings and inadequate facilities hamper the delivery of a safe, decent and purposeful environment for prisoners.
Commenting, Alan Bevan, chairman of the IMB said: “When the Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke, spoke recently of warehousing more and more offenders in out-dated facilities with little emphasis on rehabilitation, he could have been describing Pentonville.
“The general overcrowding of the prison system continues to place intolerable burdens on prisoners and staff at Pentonville.
“Efforts to rehabilitate offenders are made more difficult, with prisoners wasting far too much of their time spent in custody.”