Friday, June 23, 2006

The clang of the gate / The Economist, 22 June 2006

http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7087722
"The British government has been accused of both stuffing prisons and letting too many convicts out. Oddly, both accusations are true. Tiny cells, some of them 150 years old, have already been doubled up to house two inmates. Almost every day, governors are told to make space for a new batch of prisoners, who often arrive in the evening and may be moved again as soon as the following day. This coming and going, which governors call “churn”, is disruptive and disorientating. It can also be deadly. “If I can get through a week without somebody killing themselves, that's a pretty good week,” says one prison governor."