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Prison officers pile on the pressure
Tory austerity triggered a crisis in our jails and only a decisive break from the past can turn this around, explains STEVE GILLAN
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LIKE every other trade union leader in Britain, I’m looking forward very much to the first TUC conference in 15 years under a Labour government.
A decade-and-a-half of cruel Tory austerity has devastated our public services — and prisons are no exception.
The overcrowding crisis has been all over the news but, as I wrote in these pages last month, this is just the tip of the prisons iceberg.
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Stripped of their industrial muscle and left at the mercy of ministers and management, prison officers have been pushed way beyond breaking point, warns STEVE GILLAN
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We can take inspiration from our forebears and win the repeal of anti-worker legislation and bring about fair pay and decent public services for all, says STEVE GILLAN
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The pressure is now on the government to deliver its promises, and that pressure is not just from the unions, but from a working class that will look to the right if things under Labour don’t markedly improve, writes STEVE GILLAN
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Prisons should be a place for rehabilitation that keep everyone inside them safe — instead, they are little more than crowded warehouses, chronically underfunded and their staff dangerously overworked, writes STEVE GILLAN
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Stripped of their industrial muscle and left at the mercy of ministers and management, prison officers have been pushed way beyond breaking point, warns STEVE GILLAN

Prisons should be a place for rehabilitation that keep everyone inside them safe — instead, they are little more than crowded warehouses, chronically underfunded and their staff dangerously overworked, writes STEVE GILLAN