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Podcast: Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics
Episode: Prisons in the UK: Violence, Drugs, Squalor, and a Glimmer of Hope
Description: On 19th March 2026 the Chief Inspector of Prisons issued an Urgent Notification placing Woodhill Prison into special measures (https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_reports/hmp-woodhill-urgent-notification-2/).   Â
On the same day he published a truly shocking report into HMP Swaleside (https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_reports/hmp-swaleside-5/), another jail in the long-term high secure estate holding some of the most dangerous men in the country.
Coming less than 18 months after an Urgent Notification was issued at HMP Manchester, the Inspectorate’s findings reveal a disturbing, indeed shameful, picture of systemic failure and loss of contr...