Labour should stop whipping up fears about our prisons. They created Britain’s only recent prison crisis

Sadiq Khan, the Shadow Justice Secretary, took to these pages earlier to claim that ‘This Government’s disastrous prisons policy is putting the public at risk.’ He’s been trying to claim for months that we have a prison crisis, and it is quite simply not true.

Let’s start with some simple truths.

The figures published yesterday showed that prison overcrowding is falling.

And it’s much lower than it was under Labour.

That the amount of practical work, often with employers who will give a job to those prisoners when they are released, is rising steadily.

And it’s far higher than it was under Labour.

That the number of people who self-harm in prison is lower than it was two years ago.

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Druin Burch

Lucy Letby and the killer nurse I worked with

And it’s lower than under Labour.

The number of assaults on staff is lower than it was under Labour.

The number of positive drug tests is lower than it was under Labour.