Without action in response to #COVID19, UK prisons are a death trap. https://twitter.com/TransformDrugs/status/1243193737242718210

UPDATE: Yesterday, the @MoJGovUK confirmed that 35 pregnant women and 34 in mother and baby units would be released from prison.

This is a welcome move to help protect these individuals. However, 80,000+ are still imprisoned in overcrowded conditions. This is the problem.

The prison system poses a particular risk in light of #COVIDー19. The (significant) risk of outbreak is due to the sheer scale and design of our prison system. It's good to rescue vulnerable people, but we also need to address the systematic risks posed by our overcrowded prisons

This involves looking much more widely at who can be safely released. With the risk to health so high, the threshold for justifying continued detention should also be set very high.

How much benefit is there in detaining non-violent offenders at present?

69 prisoners have now tested positive for #COVID19, three have died, and over 8,000 prison staff (a quarter of the workforce) are self-isolating. Over 1,000 prisoners are in isolation.

We don't have the resources to run the prison estate safely. We need to release prisoners.