Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

Responding to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons’ report on the implementation of the Zahid Mubarek Inquiry recommendations, Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said:

“I was part of Zahid Mubarek’s family’s delegation to the then Prisons Minister, Paul Boateng, that led to the setting up of the inquiry. I was pleased that progress was made in making prisons safer places in the years following his death, but all that effort is now being undermined. It is particularly sad that deaths in prison last year hit a record high, and in the last couple of weeks an 18-year-old hanged himself and a man was assaulted so seriously that he remains in a coma. The Ministry of Justice is overseeing an explosion in violence in prisons due to dangerous overcrowding and people will die as a consequence.”

Notes to editors

1. The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the world. It is a national charity working for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.
2. A copy of the report can be found on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website.

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