2009 headline news

"Prison officers' key role in cutting re-offending is undermined by crisis in prison system" says Beith's Committee.

Tue 3rd Nov 2009

In a report released to-day on "the role of the Prison Officer" the House of Commons Justice Committee, chaired by Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick Sir Alan Beith, says that the positive work done by uniformed prison officers is undermined by a crisis in the prison system and will be further undermined by planned changes. The result will be more victims, more crime, more fear of crime, and poor value from an already very costly prison system.

"It is the uniformed prison officer who is often the only positive role-model a prisoner sees. Good officers use their skills and experience to build constructive relationships with prisoners so as to maintain security and to encourage them to change their lives.

"This becomes impossible when prisons are overcrowded, staff time with inmates is cut and prisoners are constantly shunted around between different prisons. Prison officers in England and Wales also receive far less training than their counterparts in many other countries and officers get fewer opportunities to develop their education than prisoners. Efficiency savings, some aspects of the Workforce Modernisation Programme and the proposed 1500-place prisons all look like making things far worse".

Despite a rising prison population, the Ministry of Justice is required to make savings of approximately £900 million by 2011. Half of the Ministry's budget is for the new National Offender Management Service (NOMS), half of NOMS' budget is for prisons and 72% of the Prison Service's budget goes on staff. It seems inevitable, therefore, that the Ministry of Justice is looking for a significant cut in funding for prison officers, further reducing the ratio of prison officers to prisoners. This is a change the Committee says will damage efforts to reduce re-offending rates over the longer term.

Evidence to the Committee highlighted the potential that prison officers have to challenge prisoners' offending behaviour but also the difficulties that prison officers face in trying to have a positive impact in the current prison system.

The first problem identified by Sir Alan's Committee is the short and shallow training course provided for new recruits, who may be as young as 18 years old, which is supposed to equip them to deal with the very wide range of offenders in prison. Added to this, the Committee says over-crowding, staff shortages and the high proportion of prisoners with unaddressed mental health, drug or alcohol problems, mean the system is constantly at crisis point. This leaves little or no time to build productive relationships with prisoners which are crucial, not only for rehabilitation but also for maintaining mutual respect and, ultimately, good order and security in prisons. This also limits the resources available for effective on-the-job training or mentoring to fill gaps in the knowledge and skills of new officers.

While the number of prisoners has spiralled there has not been a corresponding increase in the number of prison officers. In total 24,272 uniformed officers were employed throughout the prison estate in 2000, rising to 26,474 by the beginning of 2006, an increase of 9%. Over the same period, the prison population has increased by 24%. Sir Alan's Committee also says that the Government's policies on 1,500 place prisons, clustering and prison "Workforce Modernisation" are likely further to deskill the prison officer's role to that of a 'turnkey'.

The implications of the Government's Prison Workforce Modernisation Programme for staff and managers run counter to much of the evidence the Committee heard on what would make a strong and effective Prison Service. Technology, such as cameras and automated locking, cannot replace the positive example-setting, engagement and the challenging of prisoners' behaviour which are the most valuable parts of the prison officer's role. The Committee says the Workforce Modernisation Programme, as currently proposed, represents a missed opportunity to develop the right Prison Service for the twenty-first century.

Sir Alan concluded "The evidence we have received over several inquiries, in particular via the e-consultations we have run, suggests strongly that prison officers have a core contribution to make to the rehabilitation of offenders, which they themselves recognise and are proud of.

"To avoid prison being 'an expensive way of making bad people worse' we need to maximise the influence of such officers, and other prison staff, over whether a particular offender goes on achieve a law-abiding lifestyle. Proper training, on-the-job support from senior colleagues and, at the end of the day, more time to work with prisoners are all vital elements in this. There are resource implications for governors but the long-term payback will be significant."

MPs condemn offender-tracking IT system as 'shambles'
More than £40 million of pounds of taxpayers money was wasted on the “shambles” of a major computer system for monitoring criminals, MPs have said.
By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent

Published: 12:01AM GMT 03 Nov 2009
The Commons Public Accounts Committee has delivered a devastating verdict on the C-NOMIS system, which was intended to track offenders through the criminal justice system.

There was “not even a minimum level of competence in the planning and execution of this project,” the MPs found, resulting in huge overspending and waste.

A total of £41 million was wasted due to delays and cost overruns, the committee found. Millions more has not been properly explained.

C-Nomis was supposed to track and manage offenders from charge to sentence, imprisonment and beyond, linking the courts, prisons and probation services.

Started in 2004 with a projected budget of £234 million, it was abandoned two years ago only after costs exceeded £700 million.

The MPs said that management was so poor that the National Offender Management Service, which runs prisons and probation services, could not explain what £161 million spent before October 2007 was used for.

Earlier this year, the NAO, said the project had been "expensive and ultimately unsuccessful"

The PAC report describes a project that was simply "out of control".

The MPs found a "culture of over-optimism" among staff, who lacked the experience needed to manage the project and underestimated both its size and complexity.

They also "grossly underestimated" the likely cost. Neither ministers nor senior management at the Home Office were aware of problems with the project until May 2007, three years after it began.

Edward Leigh said that the committee, which has examined many public sector computer projects, was still surprised by the scale of the mismanagement involved in C-NOMIS

He said: "This committee has become inured to the dismal procession of government IT failures which have passed before us, but even we were surprised by the extent of the failure of C-NOMIS.

"This project has been a shambles."

The committee also warned that the officials who took the key decisions on C-NOMIS and were responsible for its monitoring and oversight have all retired or moved on. That means “no-one has been held to account” for the money wasted due to delays and cost overruns.

Instead of C-NOMIS, offenders will now be tracked on three separate databases, which are not expected to be fully operational until 2011.

23 October 2009 08:52 UK
Prison unlocks doors for public
Erlestoke Prison in Wiltshire is opening its doors to the public as part of Inside Justice Week.
During the evening event visitors will be given guided tours of the category C prison and will be able to meet staff.

The opportunity to see inside the jail is part of a drive to show the workings of the Criminal Justice System (CJS).

Andy Rogers, governor of Erlestoke Prison, said: "Confidence in all parts of the criminal justice family and network is important."

The visit has been arranged by the Wiltshire Criminal Justice Board (WCJB).

A spokesperson for the WCJB said: "It is vital that the public has confidence in the CJS.

"If people are confident, they are more likely to report crime or, if they are a witness, they are more likely to turn up and give evidence in court."

The 'ghosting' of prisoners must stop
The practice of constantly shifting vulnerable prisoners around the penal system is expensive, cruel and potentially deadly
Eric Allison guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 October 2009

The Chief Inspector of Prisons' reports on Wandsworth and Pentonville reveals that "difficult" prisoners were shifted out of the jails prior to the inspections taking place in a tactic known as "ghosting".

The attempt to subvert the inspection process failed lamentably and those responsible for planning the moves are facing disciplinary action. When interviewed, the director general of the prison service conveyed the air of a man surprised, shocked even, by the actions of the managers and staff involved.

How can this be, when "ghosting" has been part of the fabric of the penal system for as long as we old lags of prison watchers can remember? I received two phone calls on the issue yesterday, the first from the partner of a serving prisoner who had been ghosted five times in the last three months. As usual in such movements, the prisoner is woken early, long before the rest of the inmates start their day, and told to pack his kit. He is on his way. A number of staff will remain in his cell while he collects his possessions, then he is escorted to the prison reception area – by force, if he objects. Where is he going? He will find out when he gets there. In the meantime, his partner is left to look up train times to the far-flung corners of the penal system.

The second call caused poignant memories to flood back. It came from an Essex woman, Pauline Day. In 2002 her son Paul took his own life in Frankland prison, Durham. He had been there a short time and the trip to Frankland, from Wandsworth, was his 35th such move in less than two years. (The former prison governor who conducted the inquiry into his death said Day had been "passed around" by the prison service.) At the inquest into his death in 2005, part of the narrative verdict read: "We believe Paul Day felt abandoned, frustrated, depressed, helpless and defeated and had lost any trust in the system." Afterwards, Pauline Day met with senior officials from the prison service. I have seen the minutes of that meeting, which assured her that the practice of ghosting would stop, especially in the case of vulnerable prisoners, a category her son fell into.

Four years on and the still-grieving mother learns that one of the prisoners ghosted from Wandsworth to Pentonville had a history of self-harm and had attempted to hang himself prior to the move. In his underwear and still bleeding he was forcibly removed to the north London jail. All this in a perverted attempt to present a clean bill of health to the prisons inspectorate.

Ghosting takes place for many reasons: prisoners perceived as difficult will be shunted around the system on a series of "lie downs" in different establishments (if it's Tuesday, it must be Dartmoor). It's an expensive and resource-sapping method of exerting control which some may see as an admission of failure.When it happens to vulnerable prisoners, it is an exercise in cruelty.

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Cost cutting threat to prison unit
SIMON TOMLINSON
Last updated: 23/10/2009 06:00:00
SERIOUS concerns have been raised about the future of a Suffolk prison unit which houses the country's worst juvenile offenders.

In a report published today, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) said The Carlford Unit at Warren Hill could be closed down in a cost-cutting drive by the government.

In 2008, the Guardian Public Servant of the Year Award went to Lee Peck, at that time the principal officer in charge of the unit, which houses 29 inmates.

However, the report claims the unit could become “an almost accidental casualty of the drive for economy, prison by prison, across the national estate.”

Earlier this year, then prisons minister David Hanson said plans for the unit were to be reconsidered, but the IMB fears the subsequent change of minister could throw its future into question again.

The report said the “reducing resources and chronic shortage of staff” made Warren Hill a demanding place to run, but found that staff showed care and practical concern for the inmates.

The prison, at Hollesley near Woodbridge, has come under fire in recent months after current and former workers claimed the inmates were living a “holiday camp” lifestyle.

But the IMB inspection, which took place between June 2008 and May this year, found that inmates at the Carlford Unit, situated about half a mile from the main Warren Hill site, benefited from the “enrichment experiences” on offer.

During the inspection, some of the juveniles, including those serving life sentences, spent an afternoon with a group of Tibetan Monks who spoke about their way of life.

One programme that came in for particular praise was a parenting course for fathers and expectant dads, which enabled them to record stories to send to their child.

Among the problems identified was the way inmates were treated when they first arrived at the prison because they were housed alongside those who were being punished for bad behaviour.