Pre Strike Roundup

First off there's been a lot of comment about Sodexo, the disturbance at their prison in Northumberland and their aspirations for running probation in the North East. I feel a reprise is called for, starting with this report from the Independent:-

Prison officials have dismissed reports of a "stand-off" between guards and inmates who reportedly took control of a wing on Friday. They confirmed a “disturbance” had taken place, but called the suggestion of a stand-off between inmates and guards "speculation". There were no reports of any injuries. The incident broke out at the HMP Northumberland, in Morpeth, at about 7.30pm on Friday.

Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, told the BBC that prisoners had taken control of an area. “We do not know what has sparked this major incident, but I do know that 50 plus inmates have taken over a wing,” he said on Friday evening. “We have teams from other establishments trained to deal with riots on their way. There is concerted indiscipline and our officers will try to contain it.”

The trouble broke out after prisoners refused to go back to their cells, the BBC said, while police were put on standby ready to assist. A spokesman for Sodexo, which operates the prison, said the situation had been resolved. He said: “We can confirm there was a disturbance at HMP Northumberland. It was confined to part of one wing of the prison and has now been resolved. We will carry out an investigation into this incident.”

HMP Northumberland houses around 1,350 inmates and is a category C prison, for inmates convicted of less serious crimes who cannot be trusted in open conditions but who are unlikely to make a determined attempt to escape. Private firm Sodexo Justice Services took over the management of the prison in December last year.

This insecurity is happening in lots of jails, including those public sector prison service jails that have been benchmarked. A few hot days in the summer and all could go up.

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I work in Northumbria and visit there on a regular basis. Since it was privatised it has been expressed by MANY staff in our trust that, to put it bluntly, it's a sh*t prison whee you do not feel safe at ANY time. People will be either maimed or killed in this prison; it makes Jokewood look like a Mormons club.

Still as long as Sodexo get their money, who cares if a few 'scummy criminals' get killed. Blood on their hands and not Chris Graylings!

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Sodexo very quickly decided HMP Northumberland should be a 'free flow' prison. The internal gates are no longer locked and visitors are not given an escort to the wings/ OMU unless they insist. One of my colleagues was there recently and arranged with a seconded PO to meet and escort her. As they were crossing the grounds, he grabbed her hand and shouted 'run!' which she did. I don't condone any violent behaviour but I'm gald the inmates are making a stand. This prison is unsafe.

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and in Northumberland Prison staff holding 140 cases including parolees to Offender Supervise, being told by management to deliver targets despite this. When are the legal reps of these prisoners going to realise? Or are the prisoners so satisfied with their easy regime....either way staff do not feel safe working or visiting given the reduction is staff there. Sodexo has cut staffing to the bone and so far is delivering savings and making profit...so far....

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HMP Northumberland - POA say Sodexo placed profit above safety after cutting 200 jobs in last six months since taking over the running of the prison from the public sector. One wing of the prison reported to be badly damaged after 50 prisoners refused to go to their cells.

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Dean Rogers from NAPO is suggesting there is only Sodexo in the competition for Northumbria "Strong rumour Northumbria prison contractors only bidder left 4 Northumbria probation contract. Up to MoJ / NOMS to quickly clarify..." Has anyone got news on that, surely a competition is more than one!

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No inside info but Sodexo meets MoJ criteria, and had to be the favourite of the apparently 3 bidders left, the other two, if still in the process aren't in the same league. Most of us up here expecting Sodexo. Wouldn't be surprised if DTV in same position.

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There's good money on Sodexo cleaning up in the north generally, with Capita looking good for the SE. There'll be a token mutual or two, but overall CG aint going to risk his pet project on amateur primes, he'll be wanting well-heeled, hard-nosed businesses who can spin their profit into public savings, who can paint a magpie-shiny gloss finish over the unprepared surface, and who will show their appreciation for a trouser-filling contract. A 'Fur coat, no knickers' distraction theft - to avoid reputational damage you simply restructure, pay off the 'guilty', and start again - having humbly submitted yourself to the government's cleansing procedures (and no doubt treated some key figures rather well along the way).

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Someone was asking for evidence of the £20k salary figure recently. Here's a Sodexo job up for grabs, Team Leader in OMU at HMP Forest Bank - £25k, but with free meals and parking! So if thats a team leader salary, £20k aint a bad guesstimate for "offender managers".

http://www.sodexojobs.co.uk/jobs/job/Team-Leader-Offender-Management-unit/10284

Experienced POs at the upper end of scale 4 are, as been mooted for a while now, going to be too expensive for CRCs at £35k+. The brass will go to a layer of performance-orientated management and the shareholders. Per the 'agreement', 7 months from share-sale those expensive, experienced POs will be facing compulsory redundancies.

It would be kinder and more humane if MoJ/NOMS let them go on VR with whats left of any dignity. Its likely to be less painful all-round. It'll remove any prehistoric resistance, it'll make for an easier transition to the new culture and practices, it'll mean a more malleable workforce from the off without any woolly social work ethical nonsense getting in the way.

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Sodexo in North has recruited a number of ex probation ex prison managers staff as consultants on daily rates between £200 and £500 so have got some senior people on board with knowledge of both local probation and prisons. They have not finished with their prison acquisitions either. They will grow either in first phase or picking off struggling mutuals (prediction) in second phase they want a "discrete" area for economies of scale and to bring in wholesale new system in development.

Now, as I am writing this, I notice that regular contributor Andrew Hatton is developing a thesis over on the Napo Forum that Sodexo in the North East is coming close to delivering the Tory government's 'master plan' for regional prison and probation trusts as outlined in a policy document dating from 2008. It's 113 pages long and somewhat ancient, but it's certainly worth dipping into. 

I'm sure there's something in the notion and it will be interesting to see how the discussion develops, but I can't help noticing how much in the document has fallen by the wayside, which I suspect is always the way with such policy documents. I suspect that as the time for reflection approaches we will be left with the classic argument; was the TR omnishambles all part of a grand conspiracy, or was it just an almighty cock-up produced as a result of crap decision-making by people who knew nothing about the job in hand?  

The row about the barristers doing a deal with the MoJ is rumbling on and turning pretty nasty with a split between the leadership and grass-roots becoming clear. This resignation letter from the Criminal Bar Association is worth reading in full on the Crimeline website:-

I have been a member of CBA Exec for three years now. I regret that the time has come when I can no longer remain a member.

The CBA took a momentous decision this evening, to take Grayling’s offer to shelve the cuts to the AGFS until 2015, and to enter into talks about the VHCC regime, and in return to call off the industrial action. In my view it was entirely the wrong decision, short-sighted and unnecessary, and one I cannot stand, or defend. We have allowed Mr Grayling, who was ‘on the ropes’ to divide and rule us. ‘Us’ in this context means, first of all, 41 fellow criminal practitioners who courageously blazed a trail for the CBA by taking direct action on 2nd December, returning their briefs when, at that point, the criminal Bar had never taken direct action, and they could not have known whether it ever would. Their courage was an example to us all, and we should not underestimate the value to the rest of us of the step they took. Grayling did not believe – probably because he was badly advised – that barristers would ever ‘go on strike’ but those 41 did. And because they did, Grayling took seriously your threat to refuse to do AGFS cases if the pay for those was cut. Our thanks to those 41 is to say “Well, we’ve sorted out a deal that spares the remaining 6,959 of us who only do AGFS cases. Good luck with your own small battle.”

Why did we feel the need to take Grayling’s first offer? I simply don’t accept that he was in any position to dictate terms: “This is only on the table until Friday. Take it or else” Or else what? Two weeks ago, the fee cuts were “ cast in stone”. The man is a p*ss and wind merchant, but, as it transpires, a very good one; one whom we have allowed to bully us when there was absolutely no need. The fact of the matter is (or was) that WE were the ones who held the whip hand. We could have demanded, as the price of calling off the direct action, at the very least, the restoration of VHCC rates as well as a stay (which is all it is) in relation to AGFS. He would have had no choice but to agree. We have demonstrated to him our industrial muscle, and he is (or was) running scared.

I say “ at the very least” because even that would have been a disastrously bad deal for the criminal Bar in the longer term. I am talking about, of course, our abandonment of the solicitors’ profession. Paul Mendelle spoke about the unforeseen after-effects of the Carter settlement in 2007. I was part of the Bar Council’s negotiating team, and at the time, we thought we had done a very good deal on behalf of the Bar. We were very pleased with ourselves. The solicitors were poorly–organised in their response to Carter, and as a result, in 2008, had to move onto a system of graduated fees – the LGFS – which provided, by comparison with the AGFS, and more particularly with the EPF taxation they had previously enjoyed, meagre pickings. We (the BC team) simply did not foresee what would happen next – that solicitors, who of course get the client in through their door first – would see the AGFS as the way of making up the shortfall. As we all know, the result has been an explosion of in-house solicitor-advocates, decimating the work available for the junior Bar.

Finally, on the eve of fresh industrial action by Napo, the Criminal Justice Alliance and reportedly some dissident barristers, this by regular contributor Papa is worth highlighting I feel:-

Went into the garden shed to look for my NAPO placard for the strike on Monday and Tuesday and because I have been politically active on the left for many years I have quite a few old placards gathering dust and cobwebs. Near the back I brushed the dust off an old sticker "Coal Not Dole" and boy that took me back to the miners strike and to the beginning of where we are today.

With the election of Mrs Thatcher the post war consensus to build a better world for the sacrifices made by millions of dead from two world wars was sadly at an end. Now it was time to take back all the gains built on that sacrifice. The backbone of the working class movement, the unions, was broken in 1984 and once the strength of the unions was gone a steady but strong erosion of pay and conditions began. However the most significant event of the time was "Big Bang" now finance dominated industry and society. The City of London was the only place to be and with the slow deregulation that quickened under New Labour, industry was left to wither on the vine or go in search of cheap overseas labour. 

The welfare state I think was always going to be the last battle and so about 20 years ago both the Tories and the emerging New Labour people went to America to see how they did things and how they could begin to dismantle our welfare state. Privatisation and the benefits of the free market were pushed and sang out load on every occasion and with the demise of the USSR there was no other way we had reached the "End of History". This was the guff we were sold and it became the "Truth" for the post war generations. The attack on our professions is just our part in this grand plan and make no mistake it has been planned. 

In the end we will all be forced to fight because wages and conditions can get much lower still and if we are to compete in the world market this is the logic of our position. An American comedienne when talking about society said there is a club (for the elite) and we ain't in it; more recently its been said that there is 1% that dominate and we aren't among them. And to date there has been only one side of this divide fighting and it ain't been us.

In the end we will be forced to fight, might as well start on Monday.