, places, so they become purposeful places, where offenders get off drugs and get the skills they need to find work and turn their backs on crime for good. the issues in prisons are long—standing and they won't be com pletely long—standing and they won't be completely solved in the weeks or even months. we are working to ensure our prisons are stable while we deliver our reforms. of course this is a major task, i am committed to this and so is the prison service andi to this and so is the prison service and i know that governors and prison officers are as well. the next few months will be difficult but i'm confident we can turn this situation around. we can turn our prisons into places of safety and reform and this is my absolute priority as secretary of state. john thornhill is president of the national council of independent monitoring boards, which keeps a check all prisons in england and wales. he joins us from liverpool. thank you forjoining us. liz truss

says that the problems in ourjails are long—standing problems. one assumes that you are monitoring organisation has seen these problems develop and develop over time? not only have they seen them developing, they've also said and expressed concerns about these developments. i can look at reports going back to 2012, 2013, where members have been talking about the reduction in staff, insufficient staff to undertake the normal duties that we'd expect in a prison with prisoners. so it is long—standing, we welcome the secretary of state's plans to move forward but we save, why haven't you done this before? good question, why have you been ignored? that's the question we keep asking. it's not just ignored? that's the question we keep asking. it's notjust the independent board, the chief inspector of prisons has said this, people like the howard league for prison reform have made these

comments, prison officers, the prison governors association, a range of people have been raising these concerns and expressing the fa ct these concerns and expressing the fact that violence is increasing and has increased over the last two or three years. i read a report from a prison where there was a riot in 2013 and they were saying that there are insufficient staff to undertake the normal duties. as a result, prisoners have to be locked up in sl is forup to prisoners have to be locked up in sl is for up to 23 hours day. that was three years ago —— locked up in sl is. the thing that seems to have pushed the government is the massive rise, recently, in drug use in prisons. also a spike in suicides and then, to cap everything, on friday the riot at birmingham jail. absolutely, we've seen in the last 12 months a significant increase in deaths in custody, many of them

sadly suicide, probably because of the regimes where governors have beenin the regimes where governors have been in very difficult positions and have had to curtail the regimes. but we appreciate the work that the governors and prison staff do. our concern is that in these riots, not only the safety of members and prisoners, but the staff who must face the prisoners. what i say and what the members say, we've been telling you this for over three yea rs, telling you this for over three years, why haven't you done anything about it? ok, the government acknowledges there is a massive issue here. they are talking about trying to increase staffing levels, an extra 2500 officers, training and retraining staff, fast track promotions, graduate schemes and so on. and a £1.3 billion investment programme. is that enough? yes, i think it is, if they do it properly. as the secretary of state said, we

can't do that in weeks or months, it goes back to pull in succession planning, three or four years ago goes back to pull in succession planning, three orfour years ago —— bad succession planning. if we had a successful programme for replacing the prison officers who were retiring we wouldn't be in this position. we will support the secretary of state in these plans but we must also say that we support the governors and prison officers who have difficulties. one wonders, john, if your organisation has been saying this for years and you've got these various other organisations weighing there were problems, you wonder what the point of your organisation is if the government is going to ignore you? well, if we we re going to ignore you? well, if we were totally ignored, and we aren't a lwa ys were totally ignored, and we aren't always totally ignored, because to be fair when we raise issues with governors, they respond to us and work with us by and large. internally, within establishments,

our members have achieved a number of things, improving dignity for business in many establishments, improving facilities and they've improved facilities for families visiting prisoners, so on a day—to—day basis, they are improving these issues. these are major national issues and it is across—the—board, a national issues and it is across—the—boa rd, a reduction national issues and it is across—the—board, a reduction in staff, that wasn't properly planned because of course when you reduce a large member of staff, who are the ones who go, the experienced ones who build the relationship with prisoners, who can diffuse situations before they arise. yes, we will bring in 2500 staff and that is good, but we must train them effectively for the situations they will find in high tension prisons because that's what we got at the moment. do you have confidence in liz truss? i have confidence in what i have seen. i am

liz truss? i have confidence in what i have seen. iam prepared, with liz truss? i have confidence in what i have seen. i am prepared, with the independent monitoring boards, to work with the secretary of state and the prisons minister to do this and we will continue reporting to the secretary of state and the minister, not just annually in secretary of state and the minister, notjust annually in our report but ona notjust annually in our report but on a regular basis so she can no how effective the programmes that she and her colleagues are putting in place are in achieving the safeguards that we need in our prisons. in annual reports i've been seeing things like lack of safety, violence, all of these things coming time and time again. she has talked about a pilot programme to block mobile phones, well, i have to say, our members were asking for that three orfour our members were asking for that three or four years our members were asking for that three orfour years ago, our members were asking for that three or four years ago, so let's hope that now, they will actually listen and put these things into practice. but why does it take a riot, or three riots, as we've seen, in lewis, bedford and now

birmingham, why has it taken three riots before they respond? to be fair, the secretary of state, when she came into office, put a reform programme into place, as did her predecessor. so they are working on this but we will continue monitoring and where we see that the outcomes are not effective and humane, we will continue to say so. thank you for joining will continue to say so. thank you forjoining us. a new report says police in india often torture suspects to death in custody and then blame the deaths on suicide or natural causes. the claim from campaign group human rights watch, says nearly 600 people have died in police custody in india, in the last six years. our south asia correspondent, justin rowlatt, reports. claims that suspects are being beaten or tortured while in police custody here in india are fairly common and next year's official entry for the oscars is a gritty drama about police brutality. the

police routinely dismiss such claims saying that suspects committed suicide, died of natural causes like illnesses, or died while attempting to escape. human rights watch‘s report says that such torture is worryingly common. they investigate the case of a man named agnello, who the case of a man named agnello, who the police claim was hit by a train while trying to escape but his father tells a different story. he was beaten black and blue. he said that they were forcing him to commit to the crime. after that, i didn't see, i saw his dead body. the police in mumbai deny any wrongdoing in the case but human rights watch says that police across india are all too ready to use what is known here as the third degree. the supreme court has laid out clear guidelines on how

arrests should be conducted. human rights watch says its work suggests that these are routinely ignored, as are the guidelines on how deaths in custody should be investigated. it urges india to enforce those rules properly and also to prosecute officers accused of brutality. it says a key reason why it thinks these abuses are happening is because officers have no fear of retribution and it points to its claim that not one single police officer has been convicted of causing a death in custody between 2010, and 2015. the hungarian born actress and socialite, zsa zsa gabor, has died. it's believed she was 99. she made more than 70 films. as one of the first socialites, she helped invent a new kind of fame from multiple marriages and conspicuous wealth. this report from nick higham contains some flashing images. zsa zsa gabor may have been a great beauty,

but she was never a great actress. i know everything — i heard the verdict. it's dangerous for you to come here. i must take that risk, and so must you. her screen career was undistinguished, though it did include camp classics like the truly terrible queen of outer space. if you must go, promise me you're going to come back to me. her greatest role was as herself, one of the first professional celebrities, famous for simply being famous. she was rich, she was gorgeous, she was outrageous and she ate men for breakfast. her last marriage, in 1986, was her eighth, or ninth, if you include an illegal ceremony conducted at sea. women don't even get married any more today. theyjust have love affairs. i was raised in a convent. they said you have to get married, legalised, which was dumb but now ijust leave myself to live in sin, it's wonderful. girls, don't get married. it's insanity. you have to become their servant! you have to look after their house and they cheat on you. who the hell needs that? in 1989, she was brieflyjailed

for hitting a hollywood traffic cop twice her size. she was well into her 705, though during the court case she was accused of doctoring her driving licence to disguise her age. by then, herfilm career had collapsed into self—parody. here she is with frankie howard. every time i see you, i get lumps in my throat. but she never lost a certain innocence, nor her wit. as she once said, "i'm a marvellous housekeeper. "every time i leave a man, i keep his house". time for the weather now. the weather is looking pretty ugly over the next few days, in the short term it is fairly quiet, but not very pretty either because we have the low grey cloud and drizzle. hasn't felt very christmassy at all. this is the jet stream that's going to wrap things up, coming out of

north america over the north atla ntic north america over the north atlantic this week. the uk, you can barely see it, making a beeline for us barely see it, making a beeline for us and under it we will see big areas of low pressure, potential storms. one area on christmas eve and another on christmas, coming straight for us. exactly how bad they will be, these lows in terms of rain and how strong the wind is going to be, still too far to go into detail. let's concentrate on tonight and tomorrow. cloud and drizzle with missed in a few places, scotla nd drizzle with missed in a few places, scotland and northern ireland, a different story, clearing up, some frost around and some fog. big temperature difference. in the south it will be mild. tomorrow morning, to work, at the bus stop it will be around freezing. belfast, couple of degrees above. england and wales, temperatures in the 5—7 range. a few

bits of rain in western areas. just a suggestion that the clouds are breaking upa a suggestion that the clouds are breaking up a bit here across some parts of england and wales. tomorrow is going to be a better day, we will get some sunshine but here is the u nsettled get some sunshine but here is the unsettled weather, this is the weather front that is going to bring the unsettled weather into northern ireland and scotland, beginning the onset of this roller—coaster ride of the weather that we are going to get for the second half of the week. this is what the map looks like, whether france on wednesday, a lot of isobars, meaning strong winds, coming from the atlantic. this is cold air arriving from northern parts of north america and canada. cold enough for some hill and mountain is no, but some sunshine. not quite reaching the south on wednesday, double figures but on thursday, temperatures dipping although they may pick up a bit on

friday. thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, it could be quite stormy. keepin sunday, it could be quite stormy. keep in touch with the latest weather updates because they may affect you during any travel over christmas. this is bbc news, the headlines at 7pm. the russian ambassador to turkey has been assassinated, andrei ka rlov turkey has been assassinated, andrei karlov was speaking at a reception in ankara when he was shot in the back. at the scene the gunman shouted its support for syria and aleppo. thousands of people have been bussed out of the syrian city of aleppo is a ceasefire agreement holds. among them are almost 50 orphans who sent out a desperate message on social media just a few days ago. here, prepare for a week of industrial action in the run—up to christmas, postal workers are the latest to walk out adding to the

disruption already facing travellers on the trains and soon to be at the airports.