WPIC Newsletter December 2025

Next WPIC meeting, 24 January 2026

If you want to find out more about conditions inside Wandsworth Prison or get more involved in the Wandsworth Prison Improvement Campaign come to our next meeting on Saturday 24 January 2026, 10am-1pm in the Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House, 59 Wandsworth High Street, SW18 2PT.

Fundraising event

Thanks to all of you who came to our fundraising event on 12 November. Errol McGlashan, former inmate of Wandsworth and friend of WPIC, performed his show “Something to Take Off the Edge” to raise money for WPIC and the Wandsworth Prison Welfare Trust (WPWT). Those who attended were engaged, energised and deeply moved. We raised £480, most of which will go the to the WPWT Christmas appeal (see below).

If you missed the show, Errol's last performance will be at 7pm on 15 December at Brixton Library, SW2 1JQ. Tickets via Eventbrite here. And if you’re looking for an entertaining and unique Christmas gift, you can buy Errol’s book which expands on material from the show here 

Wandsworth Prison Welfare Trust Christmas Appeal

The charity Wandsworth Prison Welfare Trust (WPWT) is in the middle of its Christmas appeal for pants and vests and jogging bottoms for men leaving prison homeless and without much beyond prison clothing. Money is already flowing  and WPWT have bought 20 waterproof and warm sleeping bags, 20 pairs of cheap trainers from Primark, and 10 waterproof and warm second hand winter jackets. We are waiting for the prison to report on whether it has got any pants parcels yet. They may have other priorities just at the moment! You can find out more here about the WPWT Christmas appeal and how you can help to provide men leaving Wandsworth Prison this winter with warm clothes.

The charity is also mid way in a project to buy £2000 of new play equipment and toys for the childrens area in the main Visits hall. WPWT now know what is wanted and is suitable and will begin buying in January. And then there is the  ordinary monthly purchasing of wind up radios, neurodiverse toys and colouring books. Second hand jigsaws are flowing in well.

A special thank you to all the people who went on foreign trips and brought back puzzle books. These are really welcome especially in Polish, Romanian, Albanian and Serbian where getting reading material is expensive.

Anyone who knows the prison, knows that men have long hours with nothing to do and puzzle books and jigsaws and even simple colouring do help to keep people  sane, and a new pair of pants can be quite exciting!  

What do we want?

Wandsworth Prison Improvement Campaign was set up almost two years ago. In that time we have learnt a lot and some things in Wandsworth have improved. To reflect that we have updated our asks which now include making visitors feel welcome, keeping in touch with families and supporting foreign nationals (Wandsworth has a very high proportion foreign nationals) as well as more time out of cell and reducing self-harm and suicide. We will keep banging on about decent cells and showers.

When do we want it?

Let’s hope that 2026 sees further improvements at Wandsworth Prison.

Government response to House of Lords report on prisons

Over the summer the House of Lords Justice Committee published its excellent report Better Prisons: Less Crime. The report was highly critical of leadership in the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Prison Service (HMPPS). You can read our summary of the Committee’s report here.

The MOJ and HMPPS have now published their disappointing response to the report. They claim to have accepted 19 recommendations and partially accepted 15 but most of the responses are inadequate with references to “work ongoing” and lots of reviews and caveats such as “subject to affordability”.  There are very few clear commitments to change. Read it for yourself here. Our analysis of the MOJ response is at the end of our updated blog post about the Committee’s report.

Christmas Conversations

For some of us Christmas is a time when we have the opportunity to talk to more people, perhaps people we haven’t met before. This year, move on from the small talk and educate people about prisons. Here’s a few facts which might surprise them:

• Our prison population has almost doubled in the last 30 years

• We have the highest imprisonment rates in Western Europe, 20% more than Spain and France and double than in Germany. Almost all offences now receive much longer sentences than they used to. Why?

• Almost 20% of those in prison are on remand, the highest for 50 years. 30-40% will be acquitted or receive a non-custodial sentence

• Almost 40% of those released from prison are convicted again within a year

• It costs almost £52k a year to keep someone in prison. How could that money be better spent to reduce reoffending?

• Last year, more than half of men held in local prisons (such as Wandsworth) were locked in their cells for more than 22 hours per day

• 31% of women in prison and 24% of men were taken into care as a child, compared with 2% in the general population

• Prison officers are increasingly inexperienced with 42% having less than three years service. Training is 7 weeks.

Koestler Arts at the South Bank Centre

This year’s Koestler Arts Exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall is on until 14 December. The exhibition features art, craft and writing produced by people in prison and secure institutions as well as those on probation and community sentences. This year there are two works from Wandsworth, a painting and a poem.

Left: Portrait of the Artist Formerly Known as Human

Below: Fractured Time

More Creativity in Wandsworth

Congratulations to Liberty Choir who won the prestigious Longford Prize 2025 a few weeks ago. The specially made film which was shown at the ceremony shows Liberty Choir singing in Wandsworth. Liberty Choir’s Christmas challenge fundraising appeal starts today (2 December) and each donation will be doubled as part of Big Give.