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London Review of Books

The Enemy subscriber-only content

Marian FitzGerald

  • Prisongate: The Shocking State of Britain’s Prisons and the Need for Visionary Change by David Ramsbotham

In 1995 Michael Howard, the Tory Home Secretary, dismissed Derek Lewis from his post as Director General of the Prison Service and appointed David Ramsbotham Chief Inspector of Prisons. Lewis then wrote a book about his experience – Hidden Agendas: Politics, Law and Disorder (1997) – which reflects very badly on Howard. Ramsbotham’s departure six years later was less publicly acrimonious – Jack Straw simply announced his retirement without his having agreed to it – but Prisongate will make uncomfortable reading for ministers. It is a vivid and at times idiosyncratic account expressive in equal measure of personal frustration and moral outrage. Despite differences in tone and style, the book has striking parallels with Lewis’s.

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Marian FitzGerald is a visiting research professor at the LSE’s Mannheim Centre. From 1988 to 1999 she worked in the Research and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office.