Following another convicted murderer goning on the run from prison for the third time Prisons Minister Jeremy Wright said there would now be ”major changes” brought in as a ”matter of urgency”…. causing one prisons expert to say the Ministry of Justice was ‘dropping its bottle’ over the issue.. Arnold Pickering, 44, from Chadderton, Greater… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Open Prisons
Minister’s “Knee-Jerk” Open Prison Review
A violent fugitive dubbed the “Skull Cracker” is one of more than 1,200 open prison inmates serving an indeterminate sentence. Armed robber Michael Wheatley, who failed to return to HMP Standford Hill open prison on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, was given 13 life sentences in 2002 for a series of brutal raids on banks.… Continue Reading
HMP Blantyre House – Good resettlement Prison But With Shortcomings
HMP Blantyre House had many strengths but needed to adjust to its changed population, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection of the resettlement prison in Kent. Blantyre House is a small, semi-open prison which holds prisoners who are coming to the end of long or indeterminate sentences… Continue Reading
Police Plea To Missing Child Killer
Detectives will spend a fourth day hunting for a convicted child killer who absconded from prison in Worcestershire. West Mercia Police are concerned about the state of mind of Alan Giles, who was jailed for life in 1997, and have made a direct appeal for him to hand himself in. Giles left HMP Hewell in… Continue Reading
Women’s Prisons To Close
Two women’s open prisons, as well as a mother and baby unit in London, are set to close as part of a shake-up of the way female offenders are treated. HMP Askham Grange in Yorkshire and HMP East Sutton Park (above) in Kent will close “in due course” because the changes will mean there is… Continue Reading
Absconder Recaptured
A prisoner on the run for more than a week after disappearing from a charity work placement has been recaptured, police said today. Convicted robber and burglar John Jackson, 48, disappeared on May 16 with a quantity of cash from a charity shop in Ipswich where he was meant to be working. Suffolk Police said… Continue Reading
Worcester child killer anonymity lifted
A man who killed three children he was babysitting and impaled them on garden railings has had his anonymity lifted. David McGreavy, 62, was jailed for life in 1973 for the murders of four-year-old Paul Ralph and his sisters Dawn, two, and nine-month-old Samantha. He killed them at their home in Gillam Street, Worcester, in… Continue Reading
Robber on the run
Police are hunting for a prisoner who has absconded from prison and carried out a string of robberies, including in the South West. Lyndon Stein, 49, has robbed travel agents and building societies in Avon and Somerset, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Oxford in the past three weeks. Stein absconded on April 29 from HMP… Continue Reading
Huhne & Pryce freed from prison
Former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne and his ex-wife were both freed from prison today after serving around a quarter of their eight-month sentences for swapping speeding points. Huhne, a former energy secretary and once-aspiring Liberal Democrat leader, left Leyhill Prison in Gloucestershire by the main entrance in the back seat of a silver Honda, making no attempt to avoid… Continue Reading
IPP Prisoner Absconds
Derbyshire Police is keen to track a man who failed to return to prison after being released on temporary licence. Officers are trying to locate 29-year-old Andrew James Birchall, who failed to return to HMP Sudbury on Saturday, May 4 following release on temporary licence. He was given an indeterminate sentence for robbery and burglary offences at… Continue Reading
