Ten years ago, the Home Affairs Committee’s Special Report on Drugs and Prisons made a series of recommendations that are still being ignored by the Ministry of Justice.

Prisoners held on remand while awaiting trial can at least console themselves that if found guilty, their time on remand will count towards their sentence. But there is no such consolation for those found not guilty, or found guilty but given a non-custodial sentence.

Thanks to staff at the House of Commons Library, and the diligence of many parliamentarians, it has proved possible to investigate how well the prison’s Integrated Drug Treatment System is wo

How smart have prisons in England and Wales been in using the information gained from mandatory drug testing? And which prisons have done better than others?

Recent parliamentary answers to astute questions from Andrew Pelling MP have provided a means of assessing the progress of the Prison Service’s Integrated Drug Treatment System (IDTS). 

The Government’s drug testing programme in prisons is distorted by perverse incentives, and fails to make the best use of the data collected.

Britain’s jails are full, but are they full of the right people? A huge number are on remand – and are subsequently found not guilty of the charges on which they were remanded.

Does serving time at Her Majesty’s pleasure protect against flu? From the data available so far, that is a conclusion one might reasonably draw.