Prison reform left on the backburner

LONDON’S poorest communities lost out yesterday with the omission of the Prison and Courts Reform Bill from the Queen’s Speech.

The growing lawlessness on our capital’s streets is mirrored in our prisons. Last week, Peter Clarke, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, described Brixton as “not a safe prison” and “awash with drugs, undermining everything”.

The Bill promised to make our prisons safer and more effective at rehabilitation. This omission will hit London’s most vulnerable the hardest.