The Top Articles on Prison Officers and their Prisons

It will mean some rapists and killers who would normally have had a permanent record will now have it cleared after seven years at the most and possibly as low as two years.
Thousands of burglars and muggers will have their records cleared after as little as a year.

The changes centre on the 1974 Rehabilitation of Offenders Act which dictates when a conviction is “spent” and has a sliding timescale depending on the seriousness of the crime.

A “spent” conviction is when the offender no longer has to declare it on occasions such as a job application, insurance forms or visa requests.

Some periods have been cut by four fifths while others that would never have been spent now will be.

The reform means some serious sex and violent offenders could get jobs with the public without having to declare their past or a burglar could work as a plumber or gardener just a year after being punished and not own up.

However, the rules do not apply to those working with children, vulnerable adults or in other sensitive positions which require a formal background check from the Criminal Records Bureau.

Those disclosures reveal all past convictions regardless of whether they are spent or not.

Anti-crime groups last night warned the move puts the public at risk.

Jim Maddan, chairman of the Neighbourhood & Home Watch Network and a retired police inspector, said there is a concern for householders who trust people around their home such as gardeners or window cleaners.

“We do not want to put too many restrictions on those who want to go straight but at the same time we need to make sure the community is safe,” he said.

“If there is an opportunity for people not to declare convictions when they are going for employment then it can make the situation more difficult.”

Lyn Costello, of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression, said: “We are all for rehabilitation and if a 17-year-old steals a bike and then does nothing else it is only fair they are given another chance.

“But making sweeping statements like this is also going to affect serious offenders and it is not putting the safety of the public first.

“If someone attacks a woman and then keeps clean for just a few years they will not have to declare it and that is not protecting the public.”

Ministers are keen to reform the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act because it is now almost 40 years old.

They want to make it easier for offenders who are determined to go straight to get an “honest job”.

Currently, anyone sentenced to more than 2.5 years never has their conviction spent but that will now be raised to those who are jailed for more than four years.

Offenders sentenced to between 2.5 and four years will have the conviction cleared after seven years.

In 2010 alone, some 350 killers and rapists were handed sentences of four years or less.

Those sentenced to six to 30 months will see their period before it becomes spent fall from 10 to four years, while those jailed for less than six months will be in the clear after two years instead of the current seven.

Offenders given fines or community orders will see the period fall from five years to one.

The changes will also be retrospective meaning hundreds of thousands of offenders will see their records cleared overnight when the new rules come in to effect.

There are a series of corresponding lower time periods if the offender is a juvenile while anyone given an indeterminate sentence such as a life term will never have their conviction spent.

The planned changes have now been added to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, which is currently going through parliament.

Lord McNally, the Justice minister, said: "First and foremost, criminals must be suitably punished for their crimes.

"But it is no good for anyone if they go to jail and come out and then can't get an honest job and so turn back to crime again.

"That is why we are bringing forward reforms which will give offenders who have served their sentence a fair chance of getting back on the straight and narrow, while ensuring safeguards are in place to protect the public."

However, Paul McDowell, chief executive of the crime reduction charity Nacro, called for the Government to go further.

"These long overdue reforms will significantly help those people who have offended in the past and are now living law-abiding lives," he said.

"Despite the proposed changes, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act will still present barriers to people who have put their offending behind them, particularly those who have served four or more years in prison.

"We will therefore continue to work with the Government and our partners to secure lasting change."

The changes were revealed as Mr Clarke risked the anger of grass roots Tories after declaring that long prison terms do not cut reoffending.

In a debate in the House of Commons he said: "Some people have held the belief, which is quite understandable, for years, that in order to cut reoffending you've got to deter people by sending more and more people to prison for longer and longer sentences.

"It is my opinion that the evidence completely refutes that – that does not work, particularly if it makes the prisons overcrowded, unresponsive places where they toughen up and meet some rougher friends

Father attacks celebrities who 'glorify' drug taking
A public school master whose teenage son died after taking ecstasy powder for the second time in his life has attacked celebrities who “glorify and trivialise” drug taking.

By Matthew Holehouse, 7:00AM GMT 03 Feb 2012

Joe Simons, 16, who got nine A* grades at GCSE and hoped to study at Oxbridge died in May last year of multiple organ failure after taking drugs at a night club in bristol.

His father, Tom Simons, 51, the deputy headmaster of £25,000 a year Prior Park College in Bath, Somerset, attacked Britain’s “complacent” attitude towards recreational drug use, which he said is “spreading like a cancer.”

In a statement to a coroners’ inquest yesterday he said: “Joe is in many ways an indictment of our failure as a society to tackle the scourge of drugs.

"There are no easy answers, of course, and we are daily beset by the views and advice of the well-meaning and the misguided, urging us to legalise drugs or build more jails.

"Experts' in the field are legion, as sadly are the lives touched by the drug culture that seems to have spread like a cancer across the globe.

"It is complacency that is the greatest challenge to us all. We never think it will happen to us or our loved ones. We trust that it will not be our child who will be tempted.

"After all, we teach our children the dangers of taking drugs and that is enough. Well sadly not, as poor souls like Joe and countless others will attest to.”

“Until society as a whole stands up and says no to the dealers and no to those in the media and entertainments industry who glorify and trivialise the taking of drugs, we will continue to count the cost in lives lost and families left bereft.”

The inquest heard Joe had bought 1.5g of MDMA, the powder from which ecstasy pills are manufactured, at the Tribe of Frogs dance night at Lakota, a club in Bristol. He split the drug between four friends and washed it down with water.

Gabriel Wheatcroft, his best friend, said in a statement he saw Joe sometime later being supported.

“He looked grey and was staring into the distance. They came outside the club and laid him on the floor.

“I heard one of the door staff saying that if they were asked, they would say he bought [the drug] earlier from another club."

Joe, a keen sportsman, was taken to Bristol Royal Infirmary in the early hours of May 1 with multiple organ failure and a temperature of 42 degrees celsius. He died the following day.

He was found to have 0.98 micrograms of the drug in his blood. The normal recreational level for the drug would be around 0.2 micrograms, pathologist Dr Edward Sheffield told the inquest.

LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) -
Britain's Prison Service said it would partner with outsourcing and energy services firm Mitie
on its bid for the management of nine prisons to be awarded later this year.

The public sector run Prison Service and Mitie will compete for all nine 15-year contracts against private sector firms from Britain, France and the U.S.

Eleven English prisons are currently run by private firms with all others in England and Wales managed by the Prison Service. The nine contracts up for grabs represent the largest single privatisation of the sector so far, with more prison deals likely to follow.

Steve Wagstaffe, director of Public Sector Prisons, said in a statement on Wednesday: 'The partnership with Mitie will allow us to combine our respective strengths, skills and experience to help produce compelling bids'.

'Public servants will be responsible for the core operational work involved in running prisons and a number of key services will be delivered by Mitie under the contract.'

Mitie, which runs services from cleaning contracts at Tesco and London's Royal Opera House to managing an immigration centre, sees the justice sector as a key growth market as the government looks to make big savings over the next four years.

Other bidders are G4S, the world's largest security firm, British outsourcing firms Serco and Interserve , American prison operator GEO Group, French catering firm Sodexo, and a joint bid by U.S. prisons firm MTC and Britain's Amey, owned by Spanish group Ferrovial .

A date for the awarding of contracts has yet to be announced.

17 January 2012 Last updated at 04:04
Shrewsbury Prison sex offenders system criticised
BBC NEWS

A prison's system for assessing high-risk sex offenders and managing their sentences lacks direction and coordination, inspectors said.

Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick said too little was being done to address the risks of Shrewsbury Prison sex offenders, despite the fact "a significant number" were in denial.

But in publishing a report, Mr Hardwick said it was good "in many areas".

The National Offender Management Service said staff were working hard.

HMP Shrewsbury became a category C training prison for vulnerable prisoners in January 2010 and held 333 inmates, most of whom were sex offenders, at the time of an inspection in September.

'Urgent attention'

Mr Hardwick said it was "a generally good report that reflects a safe and respectful institution".

He added: "The regime is much improved and is more appropriate to the institution's purpose, although more needs to be done.

"The key role of reducing the risk of reoffending among a potentially high-risk group, however, requires urgent attention."

It was disturbing that in a prison holding so many sex offenders "systems to assess individual risk or supervise and manage sentences were so lacklustre", Mr Hardwick added.

He said: "There was no effective analysis of prisoner need and the prison's approach lacked direction, coordination and governance."

'In transition'

Chief executive officer of the National Offender Management Service Michael Spurr said the governor and his staff were working hard "to address the areas where the inspector found that improvement was required, including offender management and resettlement".

He said: "This is a generally good report on a prison which was in transition during the inspection.

"Given the age of the prison and the cramped conditions, I am particularly pleased about the positive comments about the levels of safety and respect at Shrewsbury.

Celebrity chef Antony Carluccio becomes ambassador for prison restaurant
11:08am Wednesday 18th January 2012

By Sophia Sleigh

A famous chef has been appointed ambassador for the Clink prison restaurant.

Culinary expert, Antonio Carluccio has become chef ambassador for the Clink, the first commercial restaurant built inside a working British prison.

Mr Carluccio will join fellow Italian gastronome, Giorgio Locatelli for the next three years at the restaurant in HMP High Down.

Mr Carluccio has over 50 years worth of experience in cooking and eating authentic Italian food.

Over the past year he has dedicated a great deal of time and expertise to the Clink, running workshops for prisoners and hosting fundraising events to increase awareness and funds for the charity.

Mr Carluccio said: “To be made a Chef Ambassador of The Clink is a great honour for me and I am extremely proud of the work and progress that has been achieved over the last 12 months.

"Working closely with the prisoners has been hugely rewarding and I look forward to continuing the training with them throughout 2012.”

The restaurant seats up to 90 diners and food is prepared, cooked and served by the prisoners who have applied to work and train towards obtaining their City and Guilds qualifications in food preparation and food service.

The Clink has trained 111 prisoners since opening in 2009, 26 of which have been

The Irish Times - Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Minister shocked by Limerick Prison conditions
LOW-LEVEL INTIMIDATION of prisoners by some prison officers, overcrowding, filthy cells and broken windows are among the most serious problems in Limerick Prison, according to the inspector of prisons, Judge Michael Reilly.

His latest report has just been published on the Department of Justice website, and the Minister, Alan Shatter, has said he was “disappointed and indeed shocked” that deficiencies the inspector previously identified were not addressed by prison management.

The director general of the prison service, Michael Donnellan, said an action plan had been put in place to rectify the issues raised.

Referring to the low-level abuse and intimidation of prisoners by a small number of prison officers, Judge Reilly said this included reference to prisoners’ ethnic background, shouting, threats of transfer to other prisons, not respecting confidentiality issues and goading of some prisoners.

He said this attitude was not confined to Limerick Prison. While it might be difficult to identify the perpetrators, this should not be an excuse for not dealing with such undisciplined conduct.

He said the prison’s condition was not due to its age. While A and B divisions, containing 55 cells, dated to 1821, the remainder, including 157 cells, a new school, medical centre, gym and recreation hall, were either of recent vintage or had been refurbished.

The older parts of the prison were physically in the worst condition, with no in-cell sanitation. Most areas in them were severely overcrowded, dirty and unhygienic. Windows in all the cells were broken, letting in rain. Despite this the air quality was still inadequate, as prisoners tried to block the windows in winter.

“This is exacerbated by the smell of sewage, which permeates most cells,” he said. In some cells there were no individual slop-out pots and prisoners had to share pots. The situation was worsened for prisoners in B division, who were effectively locked down for up to 23 hours a day. He acknowledged these conditions were exacerbated by the issue of gangs in the prison. “A and B divisions are not, in their present state, fit for purpose,” he said. “The continued incarceration of prisoners in these divisions is inhuman and degrading.”

Among immediate actions he recommended be taken were toilet patrols, escorting of prisoners in cells with no sanitation to toilets, repair and cleaning of toilets and urinals, cleaning and repair of equipment in A and B divisions and painting of cells.

He recommended three separate

By: The Associated Press | 01/18/12 10:45 AM
Corrections commissioner Brian Owens sounded off about an "epidemic" in illegal cellphones smuggled into Georgia's prisons.

Owens told lawmakers Wednesday that prison officials confiscated more than 8,500 phones in state prisons over the last 18 months. He said 330 civilians and 63 staff members were charged with trying to smuggle contraband inside the prisons, and most involved cellphones.

He said inmates aren't trying to call their moms on Christmas or their wives on an anniversary. He said "it's about gangs, power and money."

The smugglers have gone to great lengths. He said prison officials in Phillips State Prison in Buford found a dead cat stuffed with eight phones that someone had tried to throw into the prison.

Smugglers face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Child offenders 'dumped in prison' as cuts erode social care
Thousands of children are being imprisoned for minor offences such as playground fights as support services are cut, says Centre for Social Justice think tank

Mark Townsend, home affairs editor

The Observer, Sunday 15 January 2012

Thousands of children are being "needlessly dumped in prison" because of continuing cuts to traditional support services, according to a thinktank with close ties to senior Conservatives.

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) warns that a worrying dynamic has developed in which courts and prisons are effectively being used to "parent children". A report published tomorrow, utilising input from senior police officers, magistrates and youth justice officials, calls for a dramatic cut in the 5,000 children currently given custodial sentences a year, claiming too many are imprisoned for relatively minor offences.

Among the cases highlighted is that of one child who was imprisoned in a police cell after throwing a bowl of cereal at his care worker before jumping out of a window and climbing back inside.

The report concludes that the imprisonment of young people between the ages of 10 and 17 in England and Wales is too high and should be restricted to the "critical few" guilty of serious crimes and posing a serious public threat.

Instead, too many youngsters are appearing before youth courts for trivial reasons with some effectively prohibited from certain types of future employment following minor incidents such as "playground fights". The biggest concern, however, is the way the youth justice system is increasingly expected to sweep up cases that other departments, such as social services, are failing to address.

Hundreds of runners tackle March Athletic Club’s race at Whitemoor Prison
Story by: GAVIN CANEY, Reporter Tuesday, January 17, 2012 6:16 PM

RUNNERS took to the streets of March on Sunday as the town’s athletic club hosted the latest Frostbite Friendly League five-mile race.

March Athletic Club’s event, at the Whitemoor Prison, attracted 421 senior athletes and 147 juniors who tackled the off-road race around the nature reserve.

Although March AC had many of its members marshalling and helping organise the day, 31 senior club runners and 11 juniors took on the race.

Tom Littlemore (8.52) was the club’s first junior home in 16th as he excelled in the 1.5-mile event. Joe Bradshaw (29.23) was March’s first senior across the line in the adult’s race.

Fenland Running Club’s Rebecca Cousins (31.33) was the second lady home overall after another fine individual performance. However, Thorney bagged the area’s bragging rights on a fine day for the in-form club.

Liam Ward (8.18) was the highest-placed competitor out of the three clubs in any category, finishing ninth in the juniors’ race.