No other democratic nation today imprisons people on such a scale or for as long as the US, Martin E. Marty is reminded. Visiting prisoners is a central test of devotion to the Jesus of the gospels. We are also called to a vision of restoration and release.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has slammed the government’s decision to allow private security companies running child jails to continue using pain on children.

Tough questions are being raised over the implications over the British government’s plans to further increase and promote the role of faith groups in the management of offenders, both in prisons and in the community.

The United States Federal Bureau of Prisons has said it will return "non-approved" religious books and other materials that were removed from the shelves of federal prison libraries because of concerns over the threat of terrorism.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has today welcomed a drop in suicide figures in 2006, but warned that local prisons remain the worst hit for suicides among their inmates.

A network of independent prison monitoring groups is to be headed up by the Bishop of Worcester, Dr Peter Selby, who is an advocate of reform and of restorative justice.

The Church of England's General Synod is to be debate the Government's proposals to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system, as well as the crisis in Britain's prisons, it was announced yesterday.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has criticized society's over-reliance on prisons ‚Ä' and is calling for a commission of enquiry into the penal justice system in the UK, which he says is failing both offenders and victims because it is not restorative.

In a lively debate in the House of Lords yesterday, the Anglican Bishop of Worcester, Dr Peter Selby, spoke out firmly in favour of the retention of an independent inspectorate of prisons, forcing the government onto the back foot on the issue.

The bishop to the Prison Service today backed penal reformers' calls for a thorough evaluation of prison privatisation.