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Shine a Light

In a privatised children's prison a care worker restrained a boy who died; G4S promoted him. A woman deported for profit by a British government outsourcer stood naked on an airport runway and took an overdose.

A minister who blamed food bank clients for their poverty lined his pockets using Parliamentary expenses. A single dad driving his son to school one day missed the JobCentre's call, so they docked him one week's money.

Shine a Light has sprung from our influential and hard-hitting work on child detention and encompasses G4S: Securing whose world?, Care and justice, Immigration detention and removal in the UK and The attack on legal aid.

Led by award-winning investigative reporter Clare Sambrook Shine a Light exposes injustice, challenges official lying, and provides intelligence and ammunition to people working for policy change.



G4S: Don't blame us — blame the prison system

An activist reports from G4S annual general meeting, Surrey, England, 26 May 2016.

British security company G4S confirms that Florida shooter is one of their own

  • • Omar Mateen, who killed 50 people in gay nightclub, was employed as armed guard by G4S.
  • • G4S guards have killed before.
  • • Company sells its expertise in vetting staff.

How many children are sexually abused in prison?

In England nobody is counting. How official secrecy and obfuscation on sexual abuse, restraint and injury put children at risk. See also Five more arrests and another critical inspection report for G4S child prisons.

Five more arrests and another critical inspection report for G4S child prisons

Children tell inspectors of being verbally, physically and sexually abused. See also How many children are sexually abused in prison? 

‘We apologise to anybody who feels let down’

A linguistics student looks at language used by the NHS Trust whose negligence contributed to the death of her cousin. (Ahead of Wednesday’s Parliamentary debate on Southern Health). 

Ghosted away: UK’s secret removal flights examined

On Home Office flights private sector guards apply restraints so extreme they are very rarely used in prisons. What happened on the 24/25 May flight to Nigeria and Ghana?

Inquest jury finds failures in detainee healthcare

An MRI brain scan that was wrongly cancelled might have led to life-saving treatment for Bruno Dos Santos, who died aged 25 in the care of UK immigration authorities.

Cancelled brain scan could have saved UK immigration detainee

Inquest, Day Four: Neurologist testifies that he might have saved 25 year old Bruno Dos Santos. 

Private healthcare company Care UK cancelled immigration detainee’s brain scan

Jury hears that HMP Thameside staff didn’t know the rules concerning hospital appointments. Bruno Dos Santos Inquest, Day Three. 

G4S promises (again) to repaint asylum seeker red doors and relocate families at risk

Four months after 'red doors' scandal broke, security company says it really will stop making asylum seekers’ homes so easy to locate and attack.

Doubts over cause of death of man, 25, at remote UK immigration lockup

Day Two of the inquest into the death of Bruno Dos Santos.

Medicines untaken, appointments missed by young man who died at immigration lockup

Jury hears of ‘chaotic’ and ‘stressful time’ at the Verne immigration removal centre. Day One of the inquest into the death of Bruno Dos Santos.

G4S suspends 5 staff over alleged attempts to massage 999 response figures

Commercial partners G4S and Lincolnshire Police are jointly investigating fake emergency calls that made outsourcing look good.

Asylum seekers with red doors are still being targeted by racists

Regardless of government orders and promises to Parliament, UK property company Jomast carries on putting asylum tenants at risk.

Locked up, pushed out. Shaida’s welcome to Britain

While European leaders bicker over their asylum rules, Shaida waits in dread.

Since my brother’s preventable death . . .

Almost 3 years after Connor Sparrowhawk — who had autism — died at an NHS facility, his brother asks why the system still resists giving respect to people with learning disabilities.

On Connor Sparrowhawk’s avoidable death

A leaked document reveals that an NHS England Trust knew of failings 10 months before a young man died in its care.

The UK government’s inversion of accountability

What to make of a government that increasingly excuses its actions from legal accountability while demanding more and more accountability from citizens? 

Bed bugs and freight sheds: Britain’s welcome to asylum seekers

How do the government and its commercial contractors respond to criticism of standards in asylum housing?

How to decolonise mental health services

UK mental health service providers are still failing to deal with race and ethnicity.

When a children’s home is one more stop on the road to prison

New research adds to weight of evidence in the UK that looked after children are being criminalised.

Underpaid in the UK? The state probably isn’t going to help you

The government spends nine times more investigating benefits claimants than it spends probing employers who pay below the minimum wage.

Punish the weak: one woman’s experience of UK health and welfare

What does the extraordinary story of Emma Golledge tell us about the British state’s values and competence? 

The human beings that UK government ‘forgot’

As David Cameron’s panicked government puts on a compassionate face, we meet people harmed by punitive policies.

Remembering Sarah Reed

Beaten by a Metropolitan police officer in 2012. Found dead in a prison cell in 2016. Sarah Reed, a black woman, mother, daughter, sister, whose smile could light up a room.

Connor Sparrowhawk: the erosion of accountability in the NHS

Jeremy Hunt's apologies for the failures at Southern Health ring hollow, given that he believes markets and not ministers should be accountable for our healthcare. 

Children in trouble: punishment or welfare?

BBC Panorama exposed abuse at Medway Secure Training Centre — and a government policy that has gone off the rails.

Red doors for asylum seekers: MPs grill one of Britain’s richest landlords

“An unseemly and unsavoury” business? Stuart Monk of Jomast fails to impress.

Marked out for attack: living in the UK 'asylum market'

Private companies took public money to house asylum seekers behind distinctive red doors and make them wear bright shiny wristbands.

Red doors made asylum seekers targets for abuse. Deliberate?

Why did UK commercial contractors G4S and Jomast paint asylum seekers’ doors red? Why did they ignore complaints for years?

Black deaths: still fighting for justice in the UK

Ken Fero's award-winning films about black deaths at the hands of the police in Britain record the continuing struggle to get justice. They have never been broadcast in the UK. Part of our partnership with the Unorthodocs programme of screenings and events.

Idris Elba on diversity: it’s about imagination, opportunity

Since when did the lead character in Star Wars come from Peckham? Since a woman with imagination became the casting director.

The report which could destroy Britain’s immigration prisons

The former prisons Ombudsman Stephen Shaw has urged ministers to reduce immigration detention “boldly and without delay”.

Bullying kids: G4S abuse of child prisoners exposed

For years the Howard League and others have warned of abuse of child inmates in secure training centres. Now the BBC’s Panorama programme has caught it on camera.

Rich migrant, poor migrant

The UK government’s welcome depends on the size of your wallet.

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