Ian Acheson

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CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Most normal people would have no hesitation in condemning what was done to Jim Dixon and the other townspeople murdered beside him as straightforward terrorism. That is beyond the capability of Pat Cullen, the Sinn Fein candidate standing for that constituency in the forthcoming Westminster elections."

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June 19, 2024
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CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson quoted: "Among those outraged by the move was Enniskillen native Ian Acheson, an expert on prisons and extremism, who had been serving as an adviser to outgoing cabinet member, Michael Gove.

In a resignation letter published in part by The Telegraph, Mr Acheson said he felt Mr Sunak’s actions were “a colossal act of disrespect,” with the Fermanagh author stating he would always put “country before party.”

Date
June 13, 2024
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CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson referenced: "Ian Acheson, who has advised the communities secretary on extremism, said the Prime Minister’s choice to leave for an election TV interview was a “colossal act of disrespect” to the war veterans at what could be the last event they attend."

Date
June 7, 2024
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Tuesday, May 14, 2024

CEP Online Book Launch Discussion: “Screwed: Britain’s Prison Crisis and How to Escape It”

On May 14, 2024, CEP hosted an online discussion to discuss the publication of "Screwed: Britain’s Prison Crisis and How to Escape It," by CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson, in conversation with CEP Advisor Liam Duffy.

Published on April 11, Screwed has been described as “pithy, provocative and justifiably angry” by Rory Stewart, the former U.K. Government minister for prisons.

Screwed is the inside story of the collapse of His Majesty’s Prison Service, told by someone who had a front-row seat to it all. Acheson went from officer to Governor in less than a decade, and during that time witnessed the uniformed organization he was proud to serve crumble into lethal disarray. Together, Acheson and Duffy explore the former’s brutal account of the politics and decisions that have left prisons in a state where rats roam and violence and intimidation are normalized.

What’s more, the most significant chapter of the book is devoted to the ongoing issue of extremism behind bars. Prisons around the world are struggling to come to grips with a growing extremist population and have thus been described as “incubators” for terrorism. In Britain alone, several plots and attacks have been linked to convicted terrorist offenders, while extremists have even conducted attacks behind prison walls. Ian Acheson, having previously led an official review into Islamist extremism in U.K. prisons, is well placed to explain and analyze the issues Western democracies face in managing their incarcerated extremists.

Book available here.

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CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Prisons aren’t a new problem. Ian Acheson wrote about the decay of the high-sec estate for us last month; David Gauke painted a bleak portrait of the current spending settlement in December. A year ago, I examined the abject failure of the Government’s promise to have delivered 10,000 new jail places by 2020 (actual number delivered at that point: 206)."

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May 8, 2024
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CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson wrote: "Tommy Robinson, a self-invented English ‘patriot’, was free to attend yesterday’s St George’s Day event in central London which descended into ugly clashes between participants and police. Earlier in the day, he had been released from court after successfully arguing that a police dispersal order that resulted in his arrest and charge in November last year was unlawfully applied to him due to a paperwork blunder. He says he will now sue the Metropolitan police.

Robinson has nearly half a million followers on social media. They have, by now, fully absorbed the narrative that when it comes to protest, Britain has a two-tier system of policing."

Date
April 24, 2024
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CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Aldous Huxley’s dystopian best seller Brave New World, published back in 1934, envisaged a society where stability was enforced by a numbing drug called ‘soma’. Constant consumption of soma, mandated by the state, dulled the senses, vanished despair and discouraged rebellion. I was reminded of this by comments made by some of the Times‘ new crime commissioners as they launch a year-long project to fix our broken criminal justice system. They were speculating as to why we weren’t seeing a national jail insurrection similar to what happened here in the spring of 1990 when multiple prisons across the country exploded in violent disorder. After all, many of the precursors that existed then are now present once again: severe overcrowding, demoralised and overwhelmed staff, endemic brutality and squalor.” 

Date
April 23, 2024
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"Professor Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and author of Screwed: Britain's Prison Crisis and How To Escape It, was shocked when he came across the figures."

Date
April 22, 2024
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CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson: "Every morning, men and women serving on the front line of His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service pull on a cheap uniform and go to work in what's been called the most hostile work environment in Europe.

The endemic violence in our jails means many of them are ending their shifts in hospital rather than home with their families.

A month ago, an officer went on duty on B wing in HMP Whitemoor, one of our maximum security prisons. He left in an ambulance and was put on a ventilator, unconscious, after a vicious assault."

Date
April 22, 2024
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Daily Dose

Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.

Fact:

On May 8, 2019, Taliban insurgents detonated an explosive-laden vehicle and then broke into American NGO Counterpart International’s offices in Kabul. At least seven people were killed and 24 were injured.

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