Sir, This month the Government is planning to save £60 million by locking up prison inmates from Friday lunchtime, when workshop and educational activities will stop, until Monday morning. Hours spent by British prisoners in their cells have now risen as high as they were in 1969. Being locked up for an average of 18 hours per day in a small space is especially troubling because 70 per cent of people in prison already have personality disorders. Prison suicides went up by 37 per cent last year, largely because of overcrowding. Acts of violence, self-mutilation and suicide are only likely to increase under the new system.

It would appear that the Government has put little thought and no money in to how prisoners will occupy this longer lock-up time. It is left to independently funded charities to take the initiative. Fine Cell Work, which trains inmates to do professional tapestry and quilting in their cells, and the Prison Phoenix Trust, which teaches them to do meditation in their cells, exist because oceans of soul-destroying lock-up time lurk behind successive governments’ fine talk about “purposeful activity” in prisons.

It is well known that the length of time spent in cells reduces the chances of effective rehabilitation. If the Government is committed to increasing lock-up time, then it must also install measures to contain the damaging consequences of this decision.

Dr Katy Emck

Fine Cell Work

Frances Crook

The Howard League for Penal Reform

Geoff Dobson

Prison Reform Trust

Lord Ramsbotham

The House of Lords

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