The British prison system is acknowledged to be in crisis. The prison population hovers around 44,000 people in England and Wales, and 5,000 in Scotland, of whom a growing proportion are long‐termers. Conditions inside are generally appalling. Prison officers are engaged in an increasingly militant campaign of disruption, frequently defying the orders of the National Executive of the Prison Officers' Association (P.O.A.). Allegations of the misuse of drugs and of the gross brutality of the MUFTI (Minimal Use of Force Tactical Intervention) squads are the latest charges of serious malpractice publicly levelled against the prison authorities. Prison governors have warned of the immediate and total breakdown of the prison system, complaining bitterly of the deplorable lack of leadership from the Home Offic