From the 1917 Balfour Declaration to today’s F-35 sales, Britain’s historical responsibility has now evolved into support for the present-day outright genocide. But our solidarity movement is growing too, writes BEN JAMAL

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.”




