HMP Dartmoor, a prison established during the Napoleonic Wars located in the UK, has recently faced a significant issue with the detection of radon, a radioactive gas known to cause cancer, leading to the closure of over 180 cells. This situation, discovered in 2022, prompted the relocation of nearly 200 inmates as a safety precaution, bringing the facility’s operational capacity down to 640 persons. The presence of radon, especially problematic in granite structures such as Dartmoor, is a known health risk, linked annually to up to 1,000 lung cancer deaths. Following the detection, justice minister Edward Argar indicated that interim safety measures were adopted, with no immediate danger to the current prison staff and inmates. However, the incident has brought to light the delay in addressing the radon issue, with questions being raised by Labour Party MP Ruth Cadbury regarding the two-year gap between detection and action.

In a related development to address the capacity crisis within the UK prison system, the justice secretary for England and Wales announced a plan allowing for the potential early release of “certain low-level offenders” up to 60 days prior to their sentence completion. This proposal is intended to mitigate overcrowding, with male prisons at 99.7% capacity and female prisons at 96.9%. Alex Chalk clarified that initial releases could occur up to 35 days early, with electronic monitoring conditions, and mentioned the possibility of extending this period to 60 days if necessary. This decision is partly in response to the growth of the remand population following the Covid-19 pandemic and aims to also focus on reducing the number of foreign prisoners, who currently exceed 10,000, through visa restrictions. However, the expansion of this release scheme has drawn criticism for its lack of transparency, as pointed out by Labour’s shadow justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood.