Ah, prisons - I'm thinking this won't be a good news piece. On the whole, you're right. This is the annual overview by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, so naturally it highlights some good practice and some bad, but there are clearly some pressing concerns for the Government and the Prison Service overall, not least for young adult prisoners aged 18 to 21.
Well, let's start with something positive. OK, the number of prison suicides is down. Of course, any is too many, and for all the progress made by new custody initiatives the chief inspector has concerns that the increased strain on the prison system - numbers are up by 2,000 in the year to November 2005 - could see things go in the wrong direction. Of particular concern is the overcrowding in local men's prisons, which house 35 per cent of all prisoners and have 60 per cent of self-inflicted deaths in custody.
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