CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: David Lammy didn’t cover himself in glory this week in Parliament. Our Lord Chancellor chortled and guffawed while his shadow Robert Jenrick tried to hold him to account for the release in error of a registered child sex offender from HMP Chelmsford whose crime sparked national protests. The shelf life of ‘but the Tories’ as a reflexive response to every ill is running out. It has kept Labour MPs well fed and with some justification, but voters are less easy to satisfy. The latest security calamity comes, after all, a year and change after the arrival of the supposed changemakers.

Ian Acheson, a former government adviser on extremism in jails, said: “Emergency mass release of prisoners, while necessary, only resulted in a transfer of risk from overcrowded prisons to under-policed communities, with a probation service already on its knees.

“It seems likely we will be here again soon with unsuitable offenders released earlier than a judge directed with a higher likelihood of harm in the community. The only viable response is ‘safety first’, with recidivists not properly prepared for release.”

It is a move endorsed by Ian Acheson, a former prison governor whose 2016 review of Islamist extremism led to the introduction of SCs. He believes Abedi should be kept in total isolation, even if it 'turns him mad'. Speaking to the Mail last night, he said: 'We have to be blunt here. Some people cannot be redeemed and they will not stop as a threat to staff until they are physically incapable. Instead of pandering to the human rights of such offenders we must reorientate our approach to containment, isolation and control for the 'spectacular few'. 'Abedi is one of those. He made a free choice to murder dozens of innocent people. His rights must always be subordinate to those looking after him.'

The threat of violence has never been far away from crowded jails but the problem is now endemic. The rehabilitation of offenders cannot happen within an unstable system. As the former prison governor Ian Acheson says: “Broken staff cannot help fix broken people.” A key factor in the crisis of authority in UK jails has been the rise of Islamist gangs after the jailing of radicals for terrorist attacks and plots. Almost 16,000 inmates in England and Wales now ­identify themselves as Muslim after a 190 per cent rise in their numbers in 22 years due to sentencing and religious conversions behind bars. Almost a decade ago, Mr Acheson warned the Commons justice committee that “all the ingredients for radicalisation” in jails were present. Islamist gang culture, sometimes expressed in loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood, mixes with ordinary criminality. Conversion to Islam behind bars is driven partly by the protection offered by gang membership in increasingly anarchic settings.

The threat of violence has never been far away from crowded jails but the problem is now endemic. The rehabilitation of offenders cannot happen within an unstable system. As the former prison governor Ian Acheson says: “Broken staff cannot help fix broken people.” A key factor in the crisis of authority in UK jails has been the rise of Islamist gangs after the jailing of radicals for terrorist attacks and plots. Almost 16,000 inmates in England and Wales now ­identify themselves as Muslim after a 190 per cent rise in their numbers in 22 years due to sentencing and religious conversions behind bars. Almost a decade ago, Mr Acheson warned the Commons justice committee that “all the ingredients for radicalisation” in jails were present. Islamist gang culture, sometimes expressed in loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood, mixes with ordinary criminality. Conversion to Islam behind bars is driven partly by the protection offered by gang membership in increasingly anarchic settings.

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: How do you break the rule of law inside our jails? You could do worse than try to murder a prison officer on duty, which by all accounts nearly came to pass yesterday. The terrorist Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, reportedly came within seconds of doing so in a frenzied attack on prison officers in the separation unit of HMP Frankland. Three were sent to hospital, seriously injured by a combination of stab wounds and burns from hot oil. I know a thing or two about separation units. I called for their creation when I did an independent review of Islamist extremism in our prisons, as ordered by the editor of this magazine, who was then Justice Secretary. I made almost 70 recommendations to fix serious and systemic failings in the prison service when it came to dealing with the cancer of violent extremism.

CEP Senior Director Ian Acheson quoted: Ian Acheson, a former prison governor who also served in the Home Office as the director of community safety, warned that a failure to tackle this issue represented a “national security threat” and could lead to race riots in prisons.

Acheson blamed “weak leadership at the top distracted by progressive fads” and those who are “scared by allegations of racism”.

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson quoted: "Back in 2016 the former prison governor Ian Acheson produced an official review of the threat of Islamist extremism in prisons, probation and youth justice, and the capability of the National Offender Management Service to control it."