Pia Sinha
{{Short description|Chief Executive of the Prison Reform Trust}}
Pia Sinha (born 1971/1972{{Cite web |last=Chakelian |first=Anoosh |date=2023-11-08 |title=Pia Sinha: how criminal gangs are taking over prisons |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/crumbling-britain/2023/11/pia-sinha-criminal-gangs-prisons-crumbling-system |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=New Statesman |language=en-US}}) is the Chief Executive of the Prison Reform Trust.{{Cite web |title=Our staff |url=https://prisonreformtrust.org.uk/about/our-staff/ |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=Prison Reform Trust |language=en-GB}} She was formerly a prison governor and a psychologist working in prisons.
Background
Sinha was born in the north of India, and her and the rest of her family moved to the United Kingdom when she was 14 years old.{{Cite web |title=Desert Island Discs - Pia Sinha, Director Prison Reform Trust - BBC Sounds |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001slj3 |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en-GB}} At least some of her childhood was spent in Bombay{{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Jon |title='We need a reasoned, evidence-based debate about what actually works with prisons' {{!}} BPS |url=https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/we-need-reasoned-evidence-based-debate-about-what-actually-works-prisons |access-date=3 June 2025 |website=British Psychological Society}} and she moved from the city to Harrow, North London. Following her schooling, at university she studied psychology and economics.
Career
Early in her career, Sinha managed a pub in Islington, London with her husband.{{Cite web |last=Chakelian |first=Anoosh |date=2023-11-08 |title=Pia Sinha: how criminal gangs are taking over prisons |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/crumbling-britain/2023/11/pia-sinha-criminal-gangs-prisons-crumbling-system |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=New Statesman |language=en-US}}
Sinha started working in the Prison Service in 1999 as a higher psychologist at a younger offenders' institute and prison. She then worked as a psychologist at another prison, and following this she worked at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. She then held deputy governorships at three prisons.{{Cite web |title=Our staff |url=https://prisonreformtrust.org.uk/about/our-staff/ |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=Prison Reform Trust |language=en-GB}}
Sinha's first prison governor role was at HMP Thorn Cross in Cheshire.{{Cite news |date=2017-07-21 |title=The female psychologist running Risley men's prison |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40662532 |access-date=2025-06-03 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} She was first woman of Asian descent to be the governor of a prison in the UK.
Sinha became the governor of HMP Risley in 2016; in her time at the prison she dealt with very high levels of novel psychoactive substances abuse by prisoners. In 2017, she became the director of HMP Liverpool, which at the time of her arrival had rat infestations and which she changed considerably in order to make the prison more hygienic and behaviour more orderly.{{Cite news |last=Hymas |first=Charles |date=2023-06-21 |title=‘Colleagues shut me in a room with a predatory offender’: How I transformed Britain’s worst jail |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/21/pia-sinha-prison-reform-trust/ |access-date=2025-06-03 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}
After working as the governor of HMP Liverpool, Sinha worked in probation service reform at the UK Civil Service, before working as the head of women's prisons at the UK Civil Service.
In 2023, Sinha took up the position of Chief Executive of the Prison Reform Trust. In 2025, she explained her view that a large number of female prisoners should not be in prison in an interview with Channel 4 News.{{Cite web |date=2025-04-09 |title=Pia Sinha: Why our prisons are broken and how to fix them {{!}} WTCTW Podcast |url=https://www.channel4.com/news/pia-sinha-uk-pirsons-ways-to-change-the-world |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=Channel 4 News |language=en-GB}}
Also in 2025, Sinha was appointed an adviser to the Women's Justice Board of the UK Government, which focuses, amongst other things, on reducing the number of women in prison and women's reoffending.{{Cite web |title=Women’s Justice Board begins plans to send fewer women to prison |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/womens-justice-board-begins-plans-to-send-fewer-women-to-prison |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}