SWEE ANG, the founder of Medical Aid for Palestinians, is a big believer in the power of small actions, and she is the living proof it works, writes Linda Pentz Gunter
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Prison staff stand together for safety
Unions are laying down their red lines for relaxing Covid-19 restrictions, reports Charley Allan
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the difficulties surrounding freedom of expression
Kenny MacAskill remembers a ‘Sovietologist’ and voice for peace and reconciliation at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
In part II of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY explores how witch-hunting drives took hold in the Civil Service as the cold war emerged in the wake of WWII
The right to buy may have been scrapped in Scotland, but the damage it has done lives on even now, writes MATT KERR
Ahead of the CP’s Congress later this month, RICHARD HEBBERT looks at the pressing climate issues humanity faces and their interdependence with capitalism
PRISONS have always been dangerous places to work, and the past decade of austerity cuts to staffing and resources have made them even less safe, with recorded assaults on staff more than tripling to over 10,000 a year.
But the coronavirus crisis has brought a new deadly risk to workers — not just prison officers but educators, healthcare staff, cleaners, caterers, administrators, probation officers and more, many of whom are classed as vulnerable to infection.
Richard Coker, professor of public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, recently described prisons as “epidemiological pumps” and warned: “The risk of exposure of Covid-19 to prisoners and staff when new cases enter a prison is far, far greater than the risk to individuals in the wider community.”
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Working in a high-risk sector, prison officers’ calls for proper PPE must be heeded – and the POA will be fighting to ensure effective protection at work is delivered, writes MARK FAIRHURST
