Rory Gets Out of Jail Free

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Politics is as much about being lucky as anything and Gavin Williamson getting the chop was the perfect opportunity to get Rory Stewart out of a tricky situation at the MoJ. 

Despite him being highly regarded in many quarters, it's certainly the view taken by the POA, together with some sceptical prison reformers. It was also the day after the Joseph McCann story broke with the MoJ admitting he may have been mistakenly released from prison. At the time of writing, although McCann has been apprehended, by any measure the circumstances look shocking and may well prove to be yet another factor in potential candidates for the ministerial vacancy proving difficult to strong-arm. This from the Independent last week:- 

Rory Stewart ‘given get out of jail free card’ on prison pledge, say campaigners

Rory Stewart‘s removal from his role as prisons minister has “given him a get out of jail free card” on his pledge to improve the prison system, justice campaigners have claimed. A cabinet reshuffle sparked by the firing of defence secretary Gavin Williamson over a national security leak saw Theresa May appoint Mr Stewart as secretary for international development – widely seen as a promotion.

As prisons minister, a role he served in from January 2018, he vowed to resign if he failed to reduce the levels of violence and drug use in jails selected for the 10 Prisons Project, a £10m campaign announced in August 2018 to tackle “acute” issues in 10 of the most challenging jails. Criminologists and prison officers said it marked a continuation of the “ministerial merry-go-round” at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) which was “destabilising” for the sector. Campaigners said Mr Stewart had forged a good relationship with them and made “positive” pledges, but these now risked “disappearing into a black hole”.

A MoJ spokesperson told The Independent that progress on the 10 Prisons Project would continue regardless of who replaced Mr Stewart. But campaigners worried that it would suffer the same fate as the “six reform prisons” project, which Michael Gove set up as justice secretary but was shelved after he was sacked in 2016.

Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), said: 

“Rory Stewart has been given a get out of jail free card.” 

He added: “The pledges [Mr Stewart] made and the way he engaged with us and listened to us were positive, but the question is what happens now? This is the problem. You forge a good working relationship with these ministers, and you start to make progress, because certainly the things he’s implemented are things that we’ve been calling for years. But then all of a sudden, just as you’re moving forward, they get replaced or promoted. So then you’ve got to do the same thing with somebody different, and you can only hope that they have the same engagement with the trade unions, respect what we say and act upon what we say like he’s done. Unfortunately this new prisons minister, whoever he or she may be, will not have time to settle in because this is an emergency – we are still in crisis. Safety is a massive issue. We’re getting staff with their throats slashed and getting their heads stamped on.”

Mr Fairhurst said that while Mr Stewart was making progress, the 10 Prison Project was not on track to succeed, and that his ministerial move would allow him to “get out of jail free” on the pledges. “We all know that it will fail,” he added. “I think people in power knew what was coming and needed to protect him.”

Stirling University criminologist Dr Hannah Graham said: “The ministerial merry-go-round in justice in recent years is destabilising. It hasn’t offered probation, courts and prisons practitioners the consistent stability and support they need. At a time when painfully high numbers of people are dying on probation and in prisons, accountable and morally courageous ministerial leadership is so very needed.”

Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said there would be a “good deal of regret” at the loss of Mr Stewart, but that it was “safe to assume” that his replacement would not commit to resigning if the 10 Prison Project doesn’t deliver. Indeed, the 10 may well disappear into the same black hole as the ‘six reform prisons’ that Michael Gove set up as justice secretary before moving on,” he added.

--oo00oo--

Writing on Facebook, Napo Vice Chair David Raho offers some observations:-

"This is something that could well impact on future probation either way. He is smart and gets the issues quickly and certainly realised very early on that TR1 was a huge mistake although he has persisted longer than some others of influence in the know with the idea that, despite the growing mountain of evidence questioning this, that there is a substantial role for private probation in delivering probation services than the sort of reduced involvement such as that seen in Wales. My enduring impression of him (gained from a wide variety of sources) has been of a man that at least appears willing to listen and to hear different points of view. He has also been more willing than others to look into, and appear to consider, other realistic possibilities rather than simply ploughing on regardless with the same old same old. Listening is one thing, hearing is another, doing what needs to be done is something a bit more challenging.

Let us not forget that in August 2018 he challenged us to judge him on his record over the next 12 months. This at least shows a bit of gumption. In fact, he said that he would step down if matters in prison had not improved. We should judge him on how things have been going since that offer. I am hoping his successor will come to the right conclusions about TR1 and do the right thing re: TR2.

How did he do?

Perhaps in probation, we will know in a couple of weeks time and either give him a thumbs up for a reasonable effort or a Grayling Award for failure in public office. It’s a key role. Let’s just remind ourselves of what it involves. Specific responsibilities include:

Prison operations, reform and industrial relations
Probation services and reform industrial relations
Sentencing (including out of court disposals)
Public protections (including Parole Board, IPPs and Serious Further Offences)
Foreign National Offenders
Extremism
Electronic Monitoring
Supporting the Secretary of State on departmental finances and transparency

Whoever is appointed has a tough brief in troubled times."

David Raho goes on to say:-

"We live in interesting and chaotic times where it is considered considerable progress and a major concession for the unions to actually be invited to meet in the same room as ministers rather than junior staff. They are still not consistently invited to the higher level meetings where the decisions are made yet - not even Labour did this in recent times.

It is POA action that is feared by government because of public sympathy re: physical risk to PO’s and immediate public safety as they could paralyse the system and force the government into an embarrassing situation where they would be forced to bring the army in. The POA are traditionally far more militant than Napo and their actions are sometimes also used instrumentally by prison governors to achieve their aims to increase resources. The POA have much greater membership density across most of the prison estate than Napo has across probation. They do however concede that they did not resist privatisation enough when it was occurring under New Labour. By way of contrast Napo’s influence is now and historically achieved through rational and persistent argument scratching away at the underbelly of the CJS in recent times utilising modern communication skills to get the message across - sometimes it comes together well and the message gets through to change the narrative slightly. That is what has happened recently with a little help from our friends some of whom operate across the political spectrum.

Potential collective strength, though a noble and honourable aspiration, would only become a reality following a massive and unprecedented increase in union membership followed by the political transformation of staff (the majority of those working in probation are small c conservative) and radical mass epiphanic changes of attitude and motivation across probation from a general position of reluctant acceptance and apathy to solid unified rejection and activism ie unlikely but not impossible.

We will no doubt be able to judge his contribution with greater accuracy shortly. He has certainly made some of the right noises and at present his main contribution is to apparently take into consideration information from others that Graylings team for example did not. This has caused concern to private providers of probation services who believe they have been assured further contracts and for unions and reformers to dare to hope that the government will perform a dramatic u-turn. However, we are wise to be sceptical as actions do very much speak louder than words and until decisive action by government to sort out the mess follows from words then no one can have any faith in what is said.

Faith is a very relative term. I have little faith in politicians to act rationally taking into consideration relevant evidence but I’m prepared to be surprised. ‘Perhaps in probation we will know in a couple of weeks time and either give him a thumbs up for a reasonable effort or a Grayling Award for failure in public office.‘

David Raho

(Published with author's permission)