While Bill Gates headlines AI safety discussions in Delhi, a different kind of safety crisis has been unfolding quietly in British prisons. The Humber prison block tells the story in stark numbers.

2023: Violence incidents stood at 18. Not good, but manageable for a prison facility dealing with challenging populations.

Then 2024 arrived.

By the third quarter, that number had rocketed to 40 incidents — a 122% surge in just twelve months. (Source: Ministry of Justice, Safety in Custody -- Safety-in-custody-summary-q3-2024_final_table_accessible -- Table_8a)

This isn't gradual deterioration. This is a system breaking down fast.

The timeline reveals how quickly prison safety can collapse. Whatever systems, staffing levels, or management approaches kept violence at 18 incidents in 2023 clearly weren't sustainable. By 2024, they had failed catastrophically.

Each incident represents real violence — staff assaulted, prisoners injured, families receiving phone calls they dread. When violence more than doubles in a single year, it means someone's workplace became twice as dangerous. Someone's son or daughter became twice as likely to be hurt.

The Humber surge mirrors what's happening across British prisons. Overcrowding has pushed the system past breaking point. Staff shortages mean fewer eyes watching, fewer experienced officers managing tensions before they explode. Violence becomes inevitable when there aren't enough people to prevent it.

But the speed of this collapse should alarm anyone who thinks prison reform can wait. From 18 to 40 incidents took just one year. At this rate, what will 2025 look like?

The Ministry of Justice releases these numbers quarterly, but by the time we see them, the damage is done. The violence has already happened. The officers have already been attacked. The system has already failed those it employs and those it holds.

While politicians debate artificial intelligence safety on international stages, human safety inside British prisons deteriorates at an alarming pace. The Humber timeline shows how quickly things can spiral when a system is already stretched too thin.

Violence doesn't plateau at concerning levels — it accelerates. And acceleration like this, from 18 to 40 in twelve months, suggests we're not looking at a temporary spike but a system in free fall.