Danger of prisoners who have nothing to lose | Letter

2026-03-18 - 17:10

Former prison governor John Podmore on the risk posed by those who have little stake in life in and outside jail The Prison Governors’ Association is right to warn about “nothing-to-lose” prisoners attacking notorious inmates such as Ian Huntley (Governors warn of increasing violence of ‘nothing-to-lose’ inmates attacking notorious prisoners, 13 March). But the warning barely scratches the surface. The deeper problem is that the system itself contains many people with little to lose, either inside or outside prison. Thousands arrive already trapped in cycles of addiction, trauma, homelessness and untreated mental illness, with little stake in life beyond the prison walls. Prison rarely repairs this damage; more often it compounds it. Rehabilitation has increasingly given way to containment and idleness, and regimes that in practice resemble solitary confinement. Continue reading...