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Articles by Andrea Coomber
The Government’s U-turn on prison fire safety
Over the past year, our legal team has been looking into the issue of fire safety in prisons. Following some concerning calls and accounts from people who had experienced fires in their own and neighbouring cells, and having seen tragic cases of avoidable deaths, we thought the matter needed more scrutiny.
Equivalence of healthcare in prison: mind the massive gap
When reading the letters I receive from prison – some in response to this column and others from our members – there are a few things that come up again and again. One of those is healthcare. I suppose this should not come as a surprise – on a basic level, it can seem that prisons gather people who are more likely to be unwell and are places that can make people sick, or sicker.
The Remand Collective
A new alliance to end the unjust jailing of women, wants to hear from you… My favourite section of Inside Time is the Mailbag, which this month includes an amazing Star Letter from Tony Ball. Tony, who is on remand, comprehensively sets out everything that is wrong with the overuse of remand – the waste of public money, the impact on prison overcrowding and, from his own experiences, the devastating personal impact of waiting in prison as an innocent person.
Ramadan
As some of you may be aware, this month will mark the start of Ramadan. For Muslims, this month is one of the most sacred times of the year, and will see many people in prison abstaining from food and drink from sunrise to sunset. It can feel harder to be away from family during this time, and many will be devoting more time to both communal and private worship.
Standing with you in 2026
As we enter a new year, I am feeling hopeful about what we will be able to achieve in 2026. In December, as I was elbow-deep in annual reports, trustee meetings, and all the admin that comes with wrapping up at the end of a year, I was struck by how much we achieved in 2025, and how many areas we are progressing in.
Overcrowding is at the root of the problems in our prisons
I am writing this after a rough few weeks for the Government on prisons. My colleagues at the Howard League and I have done numerous radio and television interviews trying to explain to baffled journalists and the public how it could possibly be that prisoners would be released in error in increasing numbers across the last three years. Are things really that bad?
Bill doesn’t go far enough
When I wrote about the Sentencing Review in July, I promised it would be the last time for a while. But the publication of the Sentencing Bill has forced my hand – turn away now if you are sick of this. I wouldn’t blame you. The Bill is complex. There are parts that are welcome and overdue, but many parts have left me cold and apprehensive.
Voices: Issuing prison officers with Tasers won’t make them safer
If you have read anything on the prison system over the past few years, you will have noticed a few common themes: overcrowding, understaffing, reoffending, crumbling infrastructure, and abject conditions. Our prisons are increasingly places of despair – full of drugs, drones, self-harm, violence and deaths. The recent annual report of the Chief Inspector of Prisons lay testament to the extent of the crisis gripping the prison system. And the government knows this.
Lord Woodley’s intervention on IPP will only get prisoners’ hopes up
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Voices: Lord Woodley’s intervention on IPP will only get prisoners’ hopes up
Tonight, more than 2,500 people will spend yet another night in prison serving the long-abolished IPP sentence – the sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection. Some of these people have been in prison for 20 years.
The rising use of force
Last month, the Ministry of Justice announced the rollout of PAVA spray in the three English children’s prisons. As you will know, PAVA is a chemical irritant spray that can cause severe pain, classified under law as a prohibited weapon. The government’s decision to approve its use represents a serious escalation in the use of force that is permitted against children, and reflects a disturbing direction of travel generally.
No more girls at YOIs – but what about the boys?
Girls will no longer be sent to Young Offender Institutions (YOIs). Instead, those placed in custody by the courts will go to secure schools or secure children’s homes. The change, announced by the Government in March in response to an independent review of girls in custody by Susannah Hancock, prompts a bigger question: is there any future for YOIs? Until this year, a handful of girls were detained in YOI Wetherby, an establishment primarily for boys.
Voices: Everyone wants prison reformed – even Reform. Labour must be bold
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Voices: Everyone wants prison reformed - even Reform. Labour must be bold
So, the long-awaited recommendations of the independent review of sentencing, chaired by former justice secretary David Gauke, have landed. The recommendations – heavily trailed over the last couple of weeks – are largely welcome, if tempered by a pragmatism that comes from the dire straits His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service finds itself in.
Update on the Independent Sentencing Review
As this newspaper demonstrates, information can be powerful. But so can misinformation and disinformation. And as I have visited prisons over the past few months, I have been struck by the amount of bad information – perhaps unintentional, possibly deliberate – circulating about changes to sentencing. A few weeks ago, I was asked to confirm the introduction of ‘SDS10’ and only yesterday was asked whether it was true that ‘prisons minister David Gauke’ had decided to cut the length of EDS sentences.
Prisons overcrowding crisis
When elected last July, prisons were at the top of the new government’s priorities. At his first press conference as Prime Minister, Keir Starmer was upfront in acknowledging that ‘we have too many people in prison’. From later reports, we now also know that prisons were high on then Chief of Staff Sue Gray’s list of potential disaster areas, and for good reason. In August and September 2024, population figures hit record highs for three weeks in a row.
An independent and fearless voice
Since the Wandsworth escape in the summer of 2023, prisons seem to be in the headlines every week. Whether it’s one of the staggering eight urgent notifications published by the Chief Inspector since 2023, various early release schemes attempting to address chronic overcrowding, or the Sentencing Review that promises to finally address the impacts of decades of haphazard and inflationary sentencing policy.
Self-harming in women’s prisons reaches highest level on record
The overall figure is lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, which amounted to 62,682, but the report emphasises significant differences in self-harm trends by gender, with the variations showing a substantial increase in the latest 12 months. There were 40,934 incidents in the male estate – representing a 1% decrease – but 18,788 in the female estate, which was a 52% increase compared with the previous year.
The pandemic has been a catastrophe
How to begin to sum up the last 12 months in prisons? Chronic overcrowding, violence, self-injury and high rates of staff turnover have been major concerns for years, but the Covid-19 pandemic has added another cruel layer of desperation for the tens of thousands of people behind bars. The Howard League for Penal Reform has never been busier, and a solution to the crisis never more needed. “My mental health is at a breaking point,” wrote one man in August. “I get 30 minutes a week in the gym.
More must be done for exonerees
We read with interest your feature ‘An “appalling vista”’ (11 June). Justice has long argued that the compensation regime for wrongful convictions is inadequate and, to this end, intervened in the recent Supreme Court case of Hallam and Nealon v Secretary of State for Justice. Another failing of the criminal justice system is the lack of support available to those who are released following a wrongful conviction.
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