Nacro responds to the Urgent Notification issued today (18.07.2025) to the Secretary of State for Justice after an inspection of Pentonville uncovered a prison in a state of disarray.
Campbell Robb, Chief Executive at Nacro, said:
“Today’s findings are nothing short of shocking. People released early in error, others held unlawfully beyond their release date, high levels of drug-fuelled violence, and people at risk of self-harm left without support. Prisoners are living in squalid, unsafe conditions—some without even basic bedding. These are not just operational failures; they are basic failures of human decency.
“Our prisons are in crisis. We’re seeing the same issues repeated across the estate —overcrowding, chronic understaffing, prisons overwhelmed with drugs and a lack of purposeful activity which all impacts on people’s mental health. This undermines justice and makes effective rehabilitation near impossible in such a broken system”
“Everyone deserves a second chance. While we welcome the steps being taken following the Independent Sentencing Review, we also need investment in services inside and outside prison to tackle the root causes of offending. Only then can we break the cycle, support people to rebuild their lives and create safer communities for us all.”
Notes to editors
Learn more about our work
We operate in more than 40 prisons and provide services across England and Wales.
We help 28,000 people across our services each year and run the CAS-2 service for the Government housing people coming out of prison on bail or licence.
We work with people at every stage of the criminal justice system, from liaison and diversion services in police custody and courts, to resettlement into the community after prison.
We use the insights from our services and the experiences of the people we support to campaign together for a criminal justice system which better serves us all. We’ve been working in this field for more than 50 years.
