HMP Manchester report: cutbacks have 'negative impact' on inmates

BBC  20th September 2011


Savings made at HMP Manchester are having a negative effect on prisoners, a report has found.

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) report said problems arose as fewer overtime shifts were being offered to cover for staff absences.

It also found the transfer of inmates with severe mental health problems from the prison to secure hospitals was cause for "extreme concern".

The Ministry of Justice said cutbacks had not affected core staffing levels.

The annual report, which was published on Tuesday, said inmates who have been identified as needing to be moved to a secure mental unit should be transferred within 14 days.
'Positive step'

The IMB said this sometimes does not happen and patients could sometimes wait for a few months for a suitable bed.

It said last year, 26 patients were transferred to secure mental units, while eight patients were transferred into Manchester from secure mental units.

The report, which looked at the year up to February 28, also raised concerns over the number of prisoners arriving late from court and the need for some prisoners to eat in their cells.

The IMB praised staff for responding well to very difficult situations, and said the extension of family visits to Category A prisoners was a "positive step towards rehabilitation and resettlement".

In response to the report, the Ministry of Justice said: "Staffing levels across the prisons estate are strictly risk-assessed.

"We take the safety of our staff and security within our prisons very seriously.

"Savings have been made without the removal of frontline staff and minimum staffing levels have remained unaffected."

HMP Manchester, formerly known as Strangeways, is a local prison which accepts people remanded into custody from the courts in the Greater Manchester area.

Prisons must stop locking the media out

ITV's Strangeways gave an authentic glimpse of life inside, but the prison service still obstructs real journalistic inquiry, writes Eric Allison

For years, I have preached the need for more media access to our prisons. My mantra reads: we know what goes on in most of our public institutions, schools, hospitals and the like; why should we be (mostly) ignorant of life behind bars? Especially when the way we treat prisoners will have a significant effect on the way they treat us when they are released.

Therefore, I watched with interest ITV's recent three-part documentary revealing life behind the walls of HMP Manchester, Strangeways.
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The series, with impressive viewing figures, was always going to be a curate's egg for ex-cons like me. I knew it would be a promotional exercise for the prison service (otherwise they would not have allowed the cameras in), but it conveyed an authentic glimpse of prison life; an existence far removed from the "holiday camp" popular perception. And it showed that prison staff have a lot to put up with – well, at least while the cameras were rolling. The main pressure on staff, across the system, is the need to deal with people who should not be there; the thousands siphoned into prisons since the Thatcher government's closure of secure mental hospitals. Prison staff are not mental health nurses, and prisons – noisy volatile places – are the last place we should put those with mental health problems.

To read more click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2011/jun/02/prisons-locking-media-out?CMP=twt_gu