Trouble With Prisons

I was struck by a comment I read somewhere on twitter recently to the effect that Nick Clegg feels that Chris Grayling is doing rather well over at the Ministry of Justice and that his department never really poses the coalition government any great problems. I suppose it just goes to prove that old adage that we get the politicians we deserve. 

Anyway, it looks like the recent shenanigans with Chris Graylings favourite prison, HMP Oakwood and their hapless managers G4S, is fast propelling the custody side of NOMS mismanagement up the news agenda:-

A group of prisoners at HMP Oakwood, near Wolverhampton, refused to be locked-down at 17:15 GMT on Sunday, leading to a 10-hour disturbance, BBC reporter Giles Latcham was told.They allegedly barricaded the entrance to the Cedar Wing and smashed windows. Operator G4S said one prisoner was treated for minor injuries. The disturbance, which G4S said involved between 15 and 20 prisoners, was brought under control just after 02:00 GMT without injury to any prison officers. The BBC was told up to 50 prisoners were involved.

Officers in riot gear entered the prison, in Featherstone, which has a mixture of category C and D prisoners.There were two rooftop protests at the jail last year. G4S could not confirm if the latest incident was linked. In a statement, a G4S spokesman said prisoners, who were out of their cells, threatened officers and caused damage to cells and prison property.

Somewhat reminiscent of the G4S Olympics security scandal, it should be noted that when disorder breaks out, it takes 'Tornado' teams urgently drawn from the public sector prisons to restore order. It's also interesting what George Osborne had to say about the matter:-

Chancellor George Osborne told BBC WM "it was very early days" for the prison and said "no conclusions" could be drawn about whether private companies should run prisons.

He added: "Some of the older prisons cost £100,000 a year, per prisoner. In some of the more modern prisons, which are better managed, the cost is more like £15,000 to £20,000 a year. That's a big saving."

Frances Crook of the Howard League was quick to question whether Mr Osborne had his figures right, but it now emerges that the MoJ have been attempting to cover-up what's been going on at this brand new flagship, but failing prison. According to leaked documents obtained by the BBC, it would seem that the MoJ have been less than open in relation to previous incidents at the jail:-

Details have emerged of further violent incidents at a privately-run prison where a serious disturbance took place on Sunday. In the latest incident, a group of prisoners at HMP Oakwood, near Wolverhampton, reportedly refused to be locked-down.

There was also a series of assaults and an outbreak of violence at the prison two months ago, according to documents seen by the BBC. The documents, from the National Offender Management Service, reveal that staff in riot gear were deployed to a disturbance in November.

About 18 prisoners, most of whom were said to be drunk and armed with pool cues, threatened prison officers and lit small paper fires.The following week, there were five outbreaks of violence in which staff or prisoners were attacked.

On Sunday, inmates allegedly barricaded the entrance to the Cedar Wing and smashed windows.The disturbance, which G4S said involved between 15 and 20 prisoners, was brought under control in nine hours without injury to any prison officers. The BBC was told up to 50 prisoners were involved.

Danny Shaw, the BBC's Home Affairs correspondent. observes:-

What these documents suggest is that what happened at Oakwood at the weekend was the tip of the iceberg. In one week alone, there were five separate incidents where prisoners or prison staff were assaulted. In another week, there was an episode of concerted indiscipline in which a number of prisoners armed themselves with pool cues and broom handles and threatened staff. The majority of the prisoners were under the influence of alcohol. Clearly there's a pattern here. This is an unstable prison that is veering on being out of control.

Secrecy goes hand in hand with anything to do with prisons because by their very nature they are closed institutions, extremely wary of any prying eyes from outside, such as probation. As anyone who has ever had anything to do with such places knows, 'security' is used as a reason for anything and everything and in relation to the privatised estate, we can now add the justification for commercial confidentiality.

It's particularly noteworthy that the MoJ have refused to state what the staffing ratio is at HMP Oakwood, but in the past Inspectors found it 'was easier to get drugs than soap' and Frances Crook drew attention to the fact that 'prisoners were drunk'. 

Clip from the FT. Why wouldn't they give the staff/inmate ratio?

The government is reliant on G4S as one of the few outsourcers with the scale to take on the work it is keen to farm out, as part of its attempts to drive down the UK deficit. The average annual cost for the 1,600 places at Oakwood is £13,200 per inmate, half the cost of existing prisons. When asked how Oakwood’s staff to prisoner ratios compared with those in the public sector, the Ministry of Justice confirmed that it had the figures but declined to give them out unless they were requested under the Freedom of Information act.

It was interesting to see what a solicitor had to say:-

Iqbal Singh Kang, from Gurney Harden Solicitors, who represents some of the prisoners, called on the government to reconsider its contract with G4S. Mr Kang said inmates described Oakwood as a "dreadful prison" which was "not very well run".

"The protests have manifested themselves after a number of issues. When those grievances aren't addressed, it results in the prisoners taking action," he said.

Mr Kang claimed the prison provided little in the way of employment and rehabilitation for inmates. He said: "The problem is, rehabilitation costs money. G4S is a privately-run company and rehabilitation has an impact on profits. This situation has gone on long enough and the government can no longer tolerate this nonsense."

But of course there are political imperatives at play because Chris Grayling is desperate to prove that he can make operating prisons cheaper without reducing their effectiveness and without them becoming less safe. On this latter point, several commentators to this blog have said that officers in some establishments are advising seconded colleagues not to visit wings unescorted because safety cannot be guaranteed, an unprecedented situation.

Apart from anecdotal evidence though, we have the National Audit Office observing that things are not entirely going well, as outlined in Russell Websters latest blog post highlighting the report on the prison estate last year:-

“The strategy for the prison estate is the most coherent and comprehensive for many years, has quickly cut operating costs, and is a significant improvement in value for money on the approaches of the past. However, the Agency urgently needs to improve new prisons and look at ways to close fewer high-performing ones in future. The new larger prisons are bringing economies of scale but the Agency does need to understand the consequences in terms of performance of building very large prisons.”

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, 12 December 2013

The current strategy for the prison estate in England and Wales has provided good quality accommodation, suitable for decades to come for prisoners with a wide range of security categorizations. The strategy is also a significant improvement in value for money over the short-term and reactive approaches of the early and middle 2000s.

However, the strategy has resulted in the closure of several prisons that were performing well, and their performance has not yet been matched by new establishments.

The new prison capacity built by the National Offender Management Service (the Agency) provides good, modern accommodation, with safety features that reduce the risk of self-harm and suicide. The Ministry also builds flexibly, so it can easily convert prisons to a higher security status.  However, some prisoners still routinely share cells, some of them in overcrowded conditions.

The strategy understandably focuses on cost reduction and, by 2015-16, it will have resulted in total savings of £211 million, with further savings accruing at a rate of £70 million a year thereafter. However, decision-making has sometimes traded good quality and performance for greater savings. Some highly-performing prisons were closed before the new prisons Oakwood and Thameside began performing well.

The Ministry of Justice and the Agency use good forecasts of prisoner numbers and have good contingency plans to help them implement changes to the estate, for example responding effectively to an unexpected spike in prisoner numbers after the riots in 2011.

Reducing prisoner numbers, where possible, still represents the best way of saving money in the medium and long term. Even with cheaper new capacity, every 1,000 places in the prison system costs on average £28 million a year. Today’s report suggests that the Agency could free up more spare capacity if prisoners serving indeterminate sentences had more access to accredited courses the completion of which might reduce their risk of causing harm sufficiently to allow the Parole Board to release them. The report also points out that the Home Office removes over 1,000 foreign national offenders from the UK every quarter but, for a number of reasons, is currently removing fewer than in 2009.

As with most aspects of social policy, the criminal justice system is no different and ill-thought-out political attempts to save money invariably end up costing society more in the long run, as Russell makes plain:-

The NAO chooses to highlight a key challenge in managing the prison estate in the future. Many of the cost savings are due to commissioning larger prisons – the Titan Prison planned for Wrexham will be Britain’s largest with about 2,000 prisoners). Smaller prisons tend to perform better and, although, there is no evidence base, many criminal justice commentators hold the view that it is easier to help prisoners address their problems and plan for successful release at smaller jails.

Reliance on new super-sized prisons will also make it difficult for NOMS to make good on their promise to establish 71 resettlement prisons – a cornerstone of the MoJ’s ambition to reduce reoffending via the Transforming Rehabilitation initiative.

Finally, a sobering comment from yesterday:-

The national tactical response group were called in 151 times to resolve prison disturbances in the first 9 months of this year. Since then there has been serious disturbances at Nottingham, Maidstone and now again at Oakwood. There may even be more. It's quite obvious that what ever vision Grayling has for the penal system, is not only not working, but its endangering lives, those of prisoners and those of staff. Indeed there has been several reports this year of inmates being murdered by fellow inmates.

It's now time for the government to take serious stock of the disarray the criminal justice system finds itself in, look more closely at Graylings ideas before the major problems the prison system are experiencing are also foisted on the probation service.