Assaults at Pentonville Prison Nearly Double

It was reported in May 2018 that assaults at Pentonville Prison had risen by 92 per cent in five years. 125 of the 524 assaults recorded in 2017 were on staff and 89 were described as ‘serious’ – a category which includes sexual assaults and those which require hospital treatment. Frances Crook of the Howard League for Penal Reform called soaring levels of violence in prisons a “national emergency” to which the government must urgently respond. She said: “This shameful rise in violence and self-injury is the direct result of policy decisions to allow the number of people behind bars to grow unchecked while starving prisons of resources.”

Pentonville Prison “Overcrowded and Inhumane”

Blocked toilets, leaking sewage and dilapidated windows were discovered during an inspection of Pentonville Prison last year. A report by the jail’s independent monitoring board said an audacious attempted escape by two inmates and the murder of another demonstrated “serious shortcomings”. The report said: “Confining two men in a cell measuring 12 feet by eight feet is not humane treatment. One has to eat his meal in the cell while the other may be sitting on a badly screened toilet a few feet away. Inspectors criticised Carillion, which maintains the prison, for “struggling to ensure the basics of decency” and concluded that the contract with the company was working for neither the jail nor the taxpayer.