'Keep Talking, Stay Safe': A Rapid Review of Prisoners' Experience under COVID-19

The Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody (IAPDC) has today published an unusual report giving a unique insight into the experiences of those detained in prisons during the Covid-19 crisis. Drawing on radio messages from over 200 prisoners across 55 prisons, almost half the prison estate, the IAP presents voices, usually unheard, and views, usually unsought, of people in prison in unprecedented times. What is helping them to keep safe? What is making a bad situation worse?


Through a partnership with National Prison Radio, over a four week period the IAPDC received and reviewed 223 prisoner phone messages from across 55 prisons, with the findings leading to ten recommendations grouped under the following five themes: 

  1. The importance of clear, accurate information and good honest communication

  2. Staff attitudes and approaches and continuing need for independent scrutiny

  3. Cleanliness, decency and variation in regimes

  4. Mental health, wellbeing and vulnerability

  5. Family contact, loss and bereavement

The full report can be read here.




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