A Point of View: Prisons don't work

BBC News

Prison does not work for the majority of inmates either as punishment or rehabilitation, writes Will Self.

If you stand on a main road in a British city and wait for long enough several kinds of vehicle will pass you by.

Naturally, there will be the relentless snort and grumble of cars and lorries, the snarl of motorcycles and the hiss of buses. But also with unflagging regularity nowadays there comes the demented wail of police cars, ambulances and fire engines weaving through the stalled traffic.

However, there's another kind of vehicle that may well escape your attention: boxy, four-square vans of the sort used by security companies to transport cash and other valuables, but painted white and with anything from two to eight opaque windows ranged along their hard riveted hides.

Next time you see one of these distinctive vans stopped by a traffic light, why not go up close to the windows, wave, and mouth the words of a silent greeting because inside, unseen yet able to view a tinted world, will be sitting a human being just like you, but in all probability shackled.

In prison slang these vans are known as "sweat-boxes" because the tiny individual cells they house, which are furnished with unpadded plastic seats, can grow intolerably hot.

The occupants of the sweat-boxes may be being transferred from prisons to courts, or taken on some other more or less rational journey mandated by their confinement.

However, often they will simply be being "ghosted", another apt slang term that perfectly captures the condition of inmates shifted from one prison to another, without warning, on a senseless go-round seemingly designed to disorientate and pacify.

It was Dostoevsky who said: "The degree of civilisation in a society is revealed by entering its prisons." But in contemporary Britain you don't even need to do this, you can simply stand on a street corner and wait for the ghosts to come flitting past in order to appreciate its parlous condition.

We now have the highest prison population in Europe by a considerable measure, and following the recent riots there is no likelihood of it decreasing.

Of course, we aren't quite at the levels enjoyed by our closest allies, those prime exponents of the civilising mission the United States, whose extensive gulag now houses, it is estimated, more African American men than were enslaved immediately prior to their Civil War - but we're getting there.

To read more, click here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15196517

Proven reoffending quarterly

This report provides key statistics on proven re-offending in England and Wales. It gives proven re-offending figures for offenders who were released from custody, received a non-custodial conviction at court, received a caution, reprimand, warning or tested positive for opiates or cocaine between January and December 2009. Proven re-offending is defined as any offence committed in a one year follow-up period and receiving a court conviction, caution, reprimand or warning in the one year follow up. Following this one year period, a further 6 months is allowed for cases to progress through the courts.

Between January and December 2009, there were just under 700,000 offenders who were cautioned, convicted (excluding immediate custodial sentences) or released from custody. Just over 180,000 of these offenders committed a proven re-offence within a year. This gives a one-year proven re-offending rate of 26.3 per cent.

These re-offenders committed an average of 2.79 offences each - around 510,000 offences in total – 79 per cent were committed by adults and 21 per cent were committed by juveniles.

• just over half of these offences were committed by offenders with more than 25 previous offences
• 0.7 per cent (around 3,400) were serious violent/sexual proven re-offences.

This report presents the proportion of offenders who re-offend (proven re-offending rate) and the number of proven re-offences those offenders commit by age group, gender, ethnicity, criminal history, offence type, serious proven re-offending, prolific and priority offenders and drug misusing offenders. Also included are proven re-offending rates for different types of sentence and by individual prison, probation trust and youth offending team.

Latest figures for 2009 are provided with comparisons to 2008, results are also compared to 2000 to highlight long-term trends; 2000 is the earliest re-offending data that exists on a comparable basis.

Fathers Inside (FI) Coordinator – Maternity Cover

The Programmes Team is looking for a dynamic individual to coordinate the Fathers Inside programme at Safe Ground.

£26,000 per annum, fixed term contract from January 4^th until 20^th July 2012 (this is maternity cover and may be extended)

Safe Ground is an established voluntary sector organisation that uses the arts to reduce re-offending; working inside and outside prison to support stronger relationships and communities. We were commissioned by the Prison Service in 1999 to develop the unique parenting and family relationship programmes Family Man (FM) and Fathers Inside (FI). We now manage their delivery across a network of 20 prisons in England and Wales. This management includes:

• Supporting prisons who deliver FM and FI
• Organising and facilitating training for programme tutors
• Liaising with senior management teams to ensure high quality delivery.

Department for Education funding has enabled Safe Ground to expand our Programmes Team to include a dedicated coordinator for each programme. They will be responsible for overseeing the integrity of FM and FI in approximately 10 prisons each. The FI Coordinator will also have additional responsibilities and will support the revisions to the FI programme and will contribute to the overall development of the parenting programme.
The successful candidate will:

• share a commitment to Safe Ground’s mission statement
• be dynamic, proactive and have a ‘can do’ attitude as this role will involve promoting high quality programme delivery in challenging environments
• have experience of working in or with prisons
• have experience of building relationships and projects, networking and coordinating complex partnerships
• have an ability to facilitate arts based or interactive training in a prison or community setting.

Click here for an application pack. This includes a full job description and person specification.
Closing date: 28 October 2011, 5pm
Shortlist notified by: 07 November, 5pm
Interviews: week beginning 14 November 2011

Prison Reform Trust poll finding: 88% support restorative justice after the riots

Restorative Justice Online

by Lizzie Nelson

In 1998 the British Crime Survey found that 41% of victims said they would agree to meet the offender, if this was offered to them, and 58% would accept reparation from the offender. In September this year, following the riots that took place across England in August 2011, an ICM poll, commissioned by the Prison Reform Trust found that 88% of the public thought victims of crime should have the right to tell offenders the impact of their crime; 94% believe offenders should make amends by doing unpaid work in the community; and 71% believe the victim should have a say in how the offender should make amends for the harm they have caused.

These findings – the strength of public support for the principles of restorative justice – are hugely encouraging for all of us who work for restorative justice. For many years it was considered a fringe idea or activity, at the margins of criminal justice. For so many of the public to respond positively to the essential idea of victims being able to tell offenders the impact of their crime, and offenders to take responsibility and make amends, signals a very radical shift, and one that leaves criminal justice agencies, and the politicians, struggling to catch up with the public.
Why has this shift in public attitudes happened? For me three things stand out. First I think there is a growing awareness that our criminal justice system, in seeking to be objective, impartial, and impersonal, has missed the needs of victims, and the very personal impact of crime. Restorative justice, alongside and as part of criminal justice, provides that counterbalance – a place and process within which the real harm caused to individuals can be acknowledged and their story and experience given centre stage.
Second, and alongside this dissatisfaction with aspects of criminal justice, Professor Gerry Johnstone has drawn attention to a shift generally towards ‘therapy culture’ – a culture in which emotion and subjective experience is given a weight and value which previously wasn’t there. In today’s culture therefore, there’s scope for individual experience to matter, within a justice framework.
And thirdly, I need to pay tribute here to the people and organisations who have worked tirelessly for restorative justice, across many continents, for many years, voices in the wilderness pointing out how the world could look, long before wider public opinion had ever heard of restorative justice; and the bravery and honesty of individuals who have been prepared to speak in public about their experience of restorative justice, people like Jo Nodding, Mary Foley, and Will Riley and Peter Woolf and many others whose stories and voices have perhaps played the biggest part in shifting public understanding of why and how restorative justice works.

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Prison population in England and Wales starts to fall

14 October 2011 BBC News

Prison numbers in England and Wales have fallen for the first time in six weeks, following a string of record highs in the wake of the summer riots.

Some 87,551 people are in jails, young offender institutions and immigration removal centres, compared with 87,673 last week.

In means that prisons are now more than 1,250 under-capacity.

Ministers had insisted there was space for anyone jailed for the violence or looting in English cities in August.

The number of children held on remand that month rose by almost a quarter, the figures show.

A total of 577 under-18s were held on remand in August, a 23% increase on the 469 held in July, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said.

Operational capacity

The prison population as a whole rose from 87,214 on 23 September to last week's record high, before falling, as cases relating to disorder in cities including London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool and Manchester progressed through courts.

The useable operational capacity in England and Wales - the level at which which prisons can be controlled, kept secure and operated satisfactorily - is 88,818.

Ministry of Justice figures showed defendants charged with offences connected to rioting were more likely to be held on remand than those charged with similar crimes unconnected to public disorder.

Those convicted were also being jailed for longer - an average of 10.4 months for violent disorder, compared with an average of 5.3 months last year.

Campaigners said they were "disappointed" by the number of children on remand.

Penelope Gibbs, director of the Prison Reform Trust's Out of Trouble programme, said: "These are children who pleaded innocent and have not been convicted.

"Imprisoning children who have not yet been convicted should be an absolute last resort."

COMMISSIONING: mentoring service at HMP Norwich

• Posted by Joe Gardham on October 14, 2011 at 3:56pm in Funding

Mentoring Project HMP Norwich
Reference number: 1544-1-Reducing Reoffending-SE-RFI
Deadline date: 27/10/2011
This deadline is for... Expression of Interests
Value: £60,750 - £81,000
Main site of work/delivery: East of EnglandHMP Norwich, Knox Road, Norwich, Norfolk, NR1 4LU
Is this suitable for smaller suppliers? Yes
Name of the buying organisation: Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Procurement - CMT L&SE


Description of the contract
The Mentoring Scheme will support men serving short sentences, older prisoners and those on the ‘Chaplefeild Project released from HMP Norwich is intended to help with problems relating to accommodation; education training and employment; health; drugs and alcohol; finance benefits and debt; and children and families. By doing this the scheme intends to help men to lead offence free lives. The budget allocated to this Contract is £27,000 per annum.

Documents
Service Specification (Mentoring Sepc Norwich.doc, 370kb) SEE BELOW

Classification of the contract
75231200 - Services related to the detention or rehabilitation of criminals

Additional information
What the notice is for: Services - Unspecified
Is this contract a framework agreement or part of one? No
Is this contract related to a programme of funding? No
The contract will be awarded based on... Most economically advantageous tender in terms of: The criteria stated in the contract documents
Length of contract: 01/01/2012 - 31/03/2014

Contact details
Contact name: Kerry Chon
Address: Clive House, 70 Petty France, London, London, SW1H 9HD
Email: RPU.LondonSouthEast@noms.gsi.gov.uk

How to apply
The Ministry of Justice will be running this process through its eSourcing Portal. The eSourcing Portal is an online application that allows all potential suppliers to create and submit their responses to any Requests for Information, Requests for Quotes, or Requests for Proposals via the internet rather than in paper form (where they have been invited to respond). The eSourcing Portal will also be used by the Ministry of Justice to run Reverse Auctions. If you are not registered on the eSourcing Portal please send an email to the relevant buyer as stated in the notice/advert or to steve.mcgarvie@noms.gsi.gov.uk stating: Company Name, Your Name, Contact email & Sourcing Reference Number: 1544-1-Reducing Reoffending-SE-RFI. The buyer will then contact you with the registration process. If you are already registered on the eSourcing Portal, please contact the relevant Buyer expressing your interest in the sourcing event. The buyer will contact all providers whom have expressed an interest in the tender by email on 31st Oct outlining the next stage of the procurement process. Transparency: HM Government requires that tender documentation issued by government departments for contracts with a value exceeding £10,000 over the life of the contract are published online (www.businesslink.gov.uk) for the general public. The resulting contract shall also be published. The Ministry of Justice may use its discretion to redact information to protect key commercial interests or on prescribed grounds. Therefore, bidders who wish information not to be published if successful should secure agreement with the Ministry of Justice prior to submission. Only documentation relating to awarded contracts will be published. Key commercial interests would be trade secrets and commercial interests which would be prejudiced by publication, following the tests in section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/docs/foi-exemption-s43.pdf The prescribed grounds for redaction are: (a) national security; (b) personal data; (c) information protected by intellectual property law; (d) information which it is not in the public interest to disclose (following the tests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000) (e) third party confidential information; (f) IT security; or (g) prevention of fraud

To Tackle the Crisis in our Prison system, we Need a Clear Plan to Reduce the Prison Population

Sadiq Khan is right to highlight the "growing crisis in our prison system" ('Ken Clarke needs to wake up to the looming crisis in our prison system'). Since the August riots, the prison population in England and Wales (already one of the highest in Western Europe) has been on an upward trajectory, with new record highs reached in each of the past four weeks. However, his criticism of concrete plans to reduce the prison population as "artificial measures", aimed solely and cynically at "cutting costs", is misplaced.

One of the problems Mr Khan identifies within the prison system, which he correctly links to high reoffending rates, is that of prisoners "idling" in their cells, with limited access to education and training, and to support including mental health care and drug and alcohol treatment. This is the result of a bloated prison estate, unable to do anything meaningful with those it holds because of a lack of time, space and resources. The Chief Inspector of Prisons has neatly pinpointed the effects of prison overcrowding in his recently published annual report: "It is not that terrible things are done to prisoners; it is that for too many, nothing much happens at all."

Addressing this problem, Sadiq Khan suggests that continuing to pour money into the prison estate is the answer - that we can build our way out of the overcrowding crisis. History, however, suggests otherwise. Between 2003-4 and 2008-9, for instance, expenditure on prisons increased by nearly 40% in real terms, reaching just under £4 billion a year. And yet, in spite of the prison building programme funded by this increased spending, overcrowding has remained a stubbornly persistent feature of our prison system. More than 60% of the prisons in England and Wales are currently overcrowded, and reoffending rates for ex-prisoners are accordingly high: the most recent figures from the Ministry of Justice show that 48.5% of ex-prisoners are re-convicted of a further offence within a year of release.

A new approach is clearly needed. Taking concerted action to reduce the prison population would undoubtedly cut costs, but it would also free up space and resources within the prison system to better rehabilitate those who have committed serious offences, and who do need to be there. It would, additionally, mean that the Ministry of Justice's budget - which, as Mr Khan points out, has been significantly reduced - could be more clearly focused on community interventions, which we know are more effective at reducing reoffending. Ministry of Justice analysis has demonstrated that those receiving community orders have lower reoffending rates than those given custodial sentences of twelve months or less, with the difference a significant 8.3% in 2008.

Gemma Lousley

Policy and Campaigns Officer at the Criminal Justice Alliance

In its green paper 'Breaking the Cycle', the Government set out proposals that aimed to reduced the demand for prison places by 6,000 and the prison population by 3,000 over the spending review period. Though the 50% discount for the earliest guilty pleas has subsequently been abandoned, and the new plans aim to reduce demand for prison places by a rather more modest 2,650 by the end of 2014-15, there are a number of measures in these proposals that could have an impact. These include removing the option of remand for defendants who are unlikely to receive a custodial sentence; diverting those with mental health problems away from the criminal justice system; and the widespread implementation of restorative justice, so that it is firmly embedded at every stage of the criminal justice system.

All of these measures could help to reduce the prison population, and this is to be applauded. As well as helping to reduce costs, imprisoning fewer people will help to reduce reoffending, and so will enable us to take the first important steps towards a rehabilitation revolution.

Details of young offender deaths revealed

By Neil Puffett Thursday, 06 October 2011

Details of how 23 children under the supervision of youth offending teams died in the community last year have emerged after the Youth Justice Board released fresh information on the incidents.

Figures provided to CYP Now reveal that seven children died as a result of suicide, seven as a result of road traffic accidents and four were murdered.

A further two died from "potential suicide", while one death was classed as "suspicious". There was also one accidental fall and one accidental drowning.

Of the deaths, six occurred in the West Midlands, five in London, five in the North West, three in Yorkshire and the Humber, two in the East Midlands, one in Wales and one in the East of England.

Di Hart, principal officer of youth justice and welfare at the National Children's Bureau (NCB), said the statistics highlight the need for more analysis of the risk factors surrounding young offenders.

"They are all violent deaths of one kind or another, which would suggest something about the needs of young people," she said.

"There are risk factors in these children’s lives and there are parallels with the child protection system, but [in the youth justice system] we don’t approach these deaths in respect of risk factors that were missed."

Earlier this year it emerged that a total 132 young offenders died while under supervision in the community since 2006.

A consultation launched by the board on how information can be better reported on serious incidents has now closed, but no detail of the future structure of the system has emerged.

Prison inspectors find HMYOI Warren Hill is getting back on track

Prison inspectors recently carried out an unannouced full follow up inspection of HMYOI Warren Hill. They found that the YOI is beginning to rise above its recent problems and getting back on track to becoming a fully effective establishment once again.

Read the full Report on an unannounced full follow-up inspection of HMYOI Warren Hill

Jess: a new lease of life

When Jess came out of prison, it felt like the world had forgotten about her. Her parents couldn’t care less, she knew that. But all those professionals who’d been there to help her stay afloat in her deeply troubled life had gone. There was no one.

Apart from Catch22’s Inspire Resettlement Service, this specialist service of ours gets to know vulnerable young people in custody, and helps them find a job, training or even housing when they’re released.

When the system spat her out, Jess strung out her days wandering the streets, dossing around in the local snooker hall. She’d started to self-harm, and looked like she might go under.

Against great resistance, Catch22 managed to get Jess a council flat of her own, in a safe area. We helped her join a gym, start swimming, and enrol with a dentist and doctor. Then we helped her look at jobs. With the support of a grant she’s getting, Jess’s now going to train to be a qualified lifeguard.

Now it’s plain sailing for Jess.

Help us to support more young people like Jess, make a donation today.

Clarke: Prison with a purpose

Tuesday, October 4 2011

The Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke, has today announced that the Government is to fundamentally overhaul our prisons system.

Labour allowed our prisons to become places of idleness which criminals left, reoffended, and ended up returning to again and again.

• We are going to transform prisons, to break expensive cycle of crime and prison. Prison is only a holding pen for criminals if we don't stop them re-offending when they finish their sentences.
• We are going to transform prisons, to break expensive cycle of crime and prison. Prison is only a holding pen for criminals if we don’t stop them re-offending when they finish their sentences.
• We will turn them into places of hard work and reform. Get people the work skills they need so that they can re-join society, work to a future, rather than return to a life of crime.
• We are committed to making community sentences more punitive and more effective. Community sentences must be a tough punishment which the public have faith in.

Speaking at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Ken Clarke said:

"The idea is to provide hard work in prison so that prisoners would be doing something productive, instead of doing nothing. Plotting a more honest future, instead of plotting their next crime. Earning money to pay back to victims, Instead of creating new victims."

He also said:

"We need prisons that work. And prisons that are drug free. Where problems like addiction and mental health are tackled properly. Where the treatment doesn't suddenly stop when prisoners leave jail, which usually happens with those on short sentences but continues in the outside world so that we are better protected. If we want less crime, we need fewer criminals."

Ken Clarke's prison transformation will take hard graft

Ken Clarke believes getting more prisoners working will cut reoffending rates. Photograph: Jon Super/AP

Getting prisoners working on a large scale is a huge task, but at least Clarke recognises prison must be used more productively

Erwin Jamesguardian.co.uk,

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Ken Clarke wants to see prisoners working. The justice secretary has a dream of "hard work flourishing in every single jail in the United Kingdom". The 40-hour working prison week, he says, "will make us safer". Perhaps it will. His argument is that people in prison who are given the opportunity to learn skills and develop a disciplined work ethic while paying their debt to society will be less likely to reoffend after they have been released – and lower reoffending rates mean fewer victims. But it will take more than just talk of hard graft to turn Clarke's vision of a "rehabilitation revolution" into reality.

For a start, the practical challenges of gearing prisons up for large-scale industry are huge. He talks about cost-cutting and is adamant that "criminals" are not going to be "exempt from the cuts". Yet to change the fabric of the prison estate so it can accommodate working conditions that mirror those on the outside would cost an unquantifiable fortune. That's not to say it is not doable, in time.

Given that the prison system of England and Wales is under huge pressure from record numbers, currently 87,000 and rising, we are talking a long time, however.

But at least Clarke is trying. The most important thing he recognises, and what he wants his party and the country to accept, is that prison as we have known it for the past 20 years or so does not work.

Just locking people up for months or years with little constructive activity to keep them occupied serves little purpose beyond giving the outside community a measure of respite. And Clarke knows that unless prisons are used productively all they are doing is storing up trouble.

So I hope he manages to introduce his "dramatic" proposals to the culture of prison life. If he holds steady and can hang on to his job for long enough he might just start the sea change that is necessary to make prison an effective remedy for crime. Reducing reoffending should be the absolute priority of prison time. How much this is achieved should be the true measure of whether or not a prison works.

Good luck Mr Clarke, for all our sakes.

Prison leaves 17,000 Children Prison leaves 17,000 children separated from their mothers

Penal reform league says two-thirds of women jailed last year could have been punished in the community instead

Alan Travis Home affairs editor · 29/09/2011 · guardian.co.uk

More than 17,000 children are forcibly separated from their mothers every year in England and Wales as a result of imprisonment, according to new figures.

The Howard League for Penal Reform says two-thirds of women jailed last year were convicted of non-violent offences and could have been punished in the community instead, sparing 11,000 children the agony of enforced separation.

The group's report, Voice of a Child, says that 17,240 children under 18 were separated from their mothers in England and Wales in 2010 through imprisonment.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League, is presenting its findings to a special session on prisoners' children in Geneva of the United Nation's committee on the rights of the child.

The latest Ministry of Justice figures show that more than 4,250 women were in prison in England and Wales last Friday. The Howard League says that more than half entered prison on remand awaiting trial and of that number, 60% were not found guilty or did not receive a subsequent custodial sentence.

Crook said that the separation of 17,000 children from their mothers was causing long-term emotional, social, material and psychological damage with little or no dedicated support: "If a single mother is sent to prison she will, at least temporarily, lose her children and children become effectively parentless," she said. "Visiting hours in prison are mainly morning or afternoon slots; the time when people are at work and children are at school. Evening and weekend visits remain rare and the situation is likely to get worse as budget cuts mean that family days in prisons are being scrapped. Visiting mum in prison is one of the most distressing things a child can experience."

Crook said that the real answer was to end the imprisonment of women and instead hold those convicted of violent offences in local secure units instead.

The chief inspector of prisons has said that half of the women in prison have children under the age of 16, and more than a third have children under the age of five.

There are 12 women's prisons in Britain, but just seven have mother and baby units with only 69 places available.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said that the prison service recognised that jail sentences can be distressing for the children and families of female offenders.

"That is why we want to increase confidence in community sentences – to demonstrate they are a viable option for non-violent offenders with caring responsibilities."

She said that in cases where prison was the appropriate sentence, establishments promoted family contact and tried to overcome the disadvantages that being away from home might create: "Eligible prisoners can apply for day or overnight leave to maintain and develop relationships with their children and help them resettle in the community on release," she said.

Kirklevington Grange prison's resettlement work praised

BBC News

Inspectors have praised the work done by a Teesside prison to prepare inmates for returning to the community.

The report into HMP Kirklevington Grange followed an announced inspection in May.

Prisons Chief Inspector Nick Hardwick said it was very effective at preparing men coming to the end of long sentences for their return to the community.

He said with the issue being the subject of discussion, ministers "could do worse" than look at Kirklevington.

Inspectors said the prison was very safe with diversity work, health care and basic services, such as catering, of a high standard.
Specialist role

Prisoners were treated with respect and individual attention was paid to their progression with high standards of conduct and motivation expected in return, inspectors found.

Prison training workshops were good and allowed inmates to go on to unpaid community work and eventually paid work outside. It also had impressive community links, they said.

The inspectors said recording of some sanctions and decisions needed to be improved.

Mr Hardwick said: "Kirklevington Grange performs its specialist role effectively.

"At a time when 'working prisons' and reparation to the community are under much discussion, ministers could do worse than look at how Kirklevington tackles these issues."

Concern for fate of young prisoners

8:00am Monday 26th September 2011
By Stuart Arnold


A SENIOR official with the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) has raised the alarm about overcrowding at the region’s young offender institutions.

The prison population in England and Wales reached an all-time high for the third week running on Friday.
The total number of prisoners hit 87,214, 94 higher than last week’s record high of 87,120 and about 1,600 short of the usable operational capacity of 88,818, Ministry of Justice figures showed.

Those figures follow the jailing of hundreds of rioters following the violent outbreaks in London, Manchester and Birmingham last month.

Terry Fullerton, the POA’s national executive member for the North-East and North Yorkshire, said: “If there is a blow-up in one area and that area cannot cope, you have to start to move prisoners around to the places where there are spaces.

“A knock-on effect takes place right around the country.”
Mr Fullerton said he was particularly worried at the moment about the fate of younger-age prisoners.
He said, because of the current overcrowded conditions, many were being moved to adult prisons prior to the end of their sentences.

“We are seeing a lot of pressure on the likes of Deerbolt (near Barnard Castle) and Northallerton,” he said.
“What happens then is you have young offenders being held in adult establishments to ease that pressure.
“That does not have a good effect on the individuals concerned.

“They need to be with their peer groups and, unfortunately, they learn the criminal trade a lot faster in adult jails.”

Mr Fullerton said 200 new places at Holme House Prison, near Stockton, which became available earlier this year, had helped relieve overcrowding in the region.

But some prisons were still “bursting at the seams”, which meant there was nothing for many inmates to do.

He said: “You have people spending a lot of time idle, quite a lot of them who are already quite angry at being sent inside, and quite often they take their frustrations out on staff.”

Mr Fullerton also renewed the POA’s attack on “absolutely horrendous” plans to privatise more prisons, including Durham and Acklington and Castington, in Northumberland.

He said: “When the Government is talking about reducing numbers in jails, it does not make any sense to do this and won’t change what is happening.

“The private sector won’t want to reduce prisoner numbers.


“The cost of prison places is down to how many people you have in your establishment, so if a prison is full, the more profit will be made.

“If the Government wants to be honest about privatisation, they want to look at the cost of private sector prisons – every one costs more than their public sector counterparts.”

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “We currently have enough prison places for those being remanded and sentenced to custody.”

Thanks for the recommendation. If you feel that i can add value to your profile and like me to return the favour, just ask! Mark

Monday 26 September 2011

by Will Stone, Health & Social Affairs Reporter

 

Legislation geared at scooping up to £1 million a year from prisoners' wages to put towards supporting crime victims was criticised today as a false economy.

Under the Prisoners' Earnings Act, which came into force yesterday, 40 per cent of prisoners' wages over £20 per week - after tax, national insurance and any court-ordered or child support payments - will be deducted and given to Victim Support.

The victims' fund will affect about 500 inmates doing work in the community but ministers are also planning to bring in powers to target the wages of prisoners working inside jails - though the average prisoner working behind bars earns just £10 a week.

Policing Minister Nick Herbert said: "For too long the financial burden of repairing the damage done by crime has fallen to the taxpayer alone."

Victim Support welcomed the move, saying that the money will be used "to deliver real, practical support for victims and communities."

But prison reform charities said funding for crime victims should come from other sources.
Howard League for Penal Reform chief executive Frances Crook said employers might not co-operate and prisoners might not work.

"So Victim Support will lose out, the community will lose out, people won't have a job to come out to when they are released. Everybody will lose."

Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon also said it was important not to put prisoners off working altogether.
She added: "It's always a problem if people leave prison with absolutely nothing. It's likely to cause further offending. And so a scheme like this has to be thought through carefully so that money is set aside for victims but that we also pay attention to resettlement."

willstone@peoples-press.com

 

The Clink Restaurant starts mentoring scheme

FM World 22 September 2011

The Clink Charity, a commercial restaurant operating inside a British prison, has launched an ex-offender career-mentoring scheme.

The Clink operates what it claims is the first “public access restaurant” in the prison regime, in Her Majesty’s Prison High Down, Surrey.

“Its logic is rooted in the power of rehabilitation to remedy the degenerative effect of prison sentences on those convicted,” according to The Clink.

Prisoners who have qualified as chefs and waiters, complete with practical kitchen and restaurant experience at The Clink, will receive professional support and guidance after leaving prison and start looking for work.

The mentoring scheme is being done in conjunction with Springboard, an educational charity.

Mentoring will include three or four visits by an assigned mentor during the prisoner’s last month in prison and include an interview with the prisoner’s prospective employer, if they have one.

The mentor will accompany the graduate to their accommodation, if required, and also take the graduate to work on his first day and arrange a travel card as required.

Also, the mentor will meet the graduate each week in their work place for three to six months.

Chris Moore, chief executive of The Clink Charity, said The Clink “has successfully trained 84 prisoners to date and this graduate mentoring scheme, launched in partnership with Springboard, will implement crucial employment mentoring in the months before and after a prisoner’s release”.

Enterprise For Change Fills The Gap of Provision

While working for these services the Directors ran some workshops in HMP Lewes and noticed a big gap in provision both in prison and through the gate for offenders. Once the Directors’ respective services were ended as business link was reorganised, they formed the company with a view to putting together a tailored self-employment programme for offenders. Firstly, they invited the University of Brighton Criminology department to help them run focus groups with prisoners in HMP Lewes and HMP Ford. This helped identify the barriers and the see how a programme would be developed.

The research identified prisoners required not only intensive support in terms of business skills and confidence building within the prison, but also “through the gate” support as well. It was also found that strategies for additional barriers such as literacy, drugs and alcohol had to addressed in tandem. Research also identified that as the job market tightens self employment is becoming more of an option for prisoners.

Enterprise for Change then developed a tailored programme combining one to many workshops (Introduction to self employment, business planning, sales and marketing) with intensive one2one enterprise coaching before release. When the prisoners are released they still get the one2one mentoring from the same advisers they worked with in the prison. This continuity is key. The programme also looks to train successful students as peer to peer business mentors for prisoners going through the programme in the future. The programme also includes coordinated sign posting to complimentary agencies to address other barriers. Enterprise for Change are also building a social network (enterprise club) which all students can sign up to and exchange experiences and advice while they start up their business.

Serco had expressed an interest in the scheme and contact was made with the contract manager for the Job Deal contract in the South East. Serco were looking for innovative pilots and Enterprise for Change proposal was accepted. The scheme is a mixture of retainer payments and payment by results. We have had the full backing of the prison since the scheme’s inception and they are very keen to continue if successful.

Enterprise for Change will be working with 50 prisoners over 6 months. The criteria is that they have to be released before Dec 2011 as we need to evaluate the impact of the intervention both inside and through the gate. The first cohort is now going through the workshop programme and we have enough applicants for the next set. If the pilot is successful Enterprise for Change will be looking to expand the programme both in HMP Lewes and other prisons.

We aim to support the offenders into sustainable self-employment. The benefits to the offender will be to gain self respect, gain the respect of their community and break the cycle of re-offending.

Enterprise for Change are also Work Programme partners in London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex so will also be looking to work with ex-offenders seeking self employment in these areas.

Check out the website here: http://www.enterpriseforchange.org.uk/ourservices.html

Prisoners provide social care, governors admit

More than one-third of prison governors believe the quality of social care in their prison is below average or poor, research by Community Care has revealed.

In a Prison Governors Association (PGA) survey, 40% of respondents said prisoners provided social care in their prison.

Half of prison governors said care was provided by prison staff who were not part of healthcare services, while just 4% said local authorities, which are not obliged to deliver social care in prisons, provided staff.

Although a quarter of the 96 respondents said care was good or excellent, the survey found a lack of specialist skills to deliver social care, with many prisons reliant on prisoners to provide it.

The findings come despite several reports over the past 10 years that have highlighted the poor state of social care in prisons (see timeline below) and a rising population of older inmates.

The number of sentenced over-50s in prison rose from 4,006 in 2000 to 7,452 last year.

"With a growing number of older people being put into prison and not being released we are going to have a crisis on our hands when it comes to the care of the elderly in prisons," said Stuart Ware, director of older prisoners' charity Restore.

Elizabeth Tysoe, head of health inspection at the prisons inspectorate, said she had encountered poor care on inspections, including equipment not being provided because of its cost or being taken away to save money. "It seems silly but it makes a real difference to people's lives," Tysoe said.

See our special report: social care behind bars - the challenge of delivering services in custodial settings.

Francesca Cooney, advice and information manager at the Prison Reform Trust, thought it unlikely that prisoners who provided care were receiving adequate training to do so.

Ware said the reliance on prisoners was the result of budget cuts. "Prisons don't have enough staff on the wings to cover those who are absent," he added.

However, the use of carer prisoners "may not be a bad thing", said Brian Swann, director of Recoop, an organisation that promotes the care and rehabilitation of older ex-offenders. "Prison is a community too and in any community you will always find good neighbours," he said.

PGA president Eoin McLennan-Murray said prisons had to make use of scarce resources and the inmates themselves had an important role to play in plugging the gap.

On the results as a whole, he said those working in a service were less likely to be satisfied with standards than other groups because they are always pushing to make things better. "I think that we are saying there is room for improvement," he added.

The Department of Health said it was developing a strategy for the management of older prisoners.
Read the whole article here: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2011/08/04/117254/prisoners-provide-social-care-governors-admit.htm

Prison population in England and Wales at record high

The number of prisoners in England and Wales has reached an all-time high, the Ministry of Justice has said.

Its latest figures showed the prison population now stands at 85,578, just 2,500 short of the usable operational capacity.

The new figures tops the previous record set in October by 83.

Last month Prime Minister David Cameron axed Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke's plans to let offenders who plead guilty out early, saying it was "too lenient".

The most recent figures for Scotland, published in December 2010, said the jail population north of the border was 7,964.

Mr Clarke has said the numbers are too high, and he wants a greater emphasis placed on rehabilitation and community sentences.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We will always ensure there are sufficient prison places for offenders sentenced to custody by courts.

"There is currently a substantial margin between our available capacity and the actual population. New accommodation continues to become available and in the next 12 months 2,500 new places will become operational."
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“Start Quote

I implore the government to bite the bullet and find a strategic way to reduce the prison population by putting an end to short term prison sentences”

Frances Crook Howard League for Penal Reform

The Howard League for Penal Reform's director, Frances Crook, said: "Every week we cram hundreds more people into our already bulging jails, only for people to leave prison unchanged and to go back to crime.

"Prisons are awash with drugs, violence and arson and this is inflicted on local communities when people leave prison. The answer to rising prison populations is not to build more failing jails.

"This ceaseless growth in prison numbers is untenable and I implore the government to bite the bullet and find a strategic way to reduce the prison population by putting an end to short term prison sentences.

"A record prison high is a sign of failure, not success."

The Prison Service said it would be opening three new facilities:

A new unit providing 180 spaces at HMP Moorland in South Yorkshire (October 2011)
A completely new prison, HMP Belmarsh West, in south east London providing 900 spaces (March 2012)
A huge new prison, HMP Featherstone 2, near Wolverhampton, providing 1,600 spaces (in two phases - April and June 2012).

A spokesman said: "This new accommodation will contribute to an overall upgrade of the prison estate allowing us to close worn out and inefficient places and, in doing so, means a more cost effective prison service."