INDEPENDENT MONITORING BOARD HMP BLUNDESTON. LOWESTOFT SUFFOLK NR32 5BG
12.9.13
The Closure of Blundeston Prison The Independent Monitoring Board is responsible for monitoring every aspect of the life in a prison, on behalf of society. We are the eyes and ears of the community within the prison to safeguard the welfare of prisoners and also of staff. As part of the role we produce an annual report every year for the Minister of Justice and then that report is published so that our praise and our concerns can be made public. This year’s report will not be published until November of December and such are our concerns about the closure that we feel it is appropriate to communicate them at this time. We would say that Blundeston prison has many qualities which make its closure ill-conceived, premature and rushed. Report after report, over many years, has highlighted the excellent and unique staff/prisoner relationship which above any other thing works towards the rehabilitation of prisoners; an expressed Government policy and intention. However marvellous electronically any new super prison is, we doubt that it would be able to produce such a relationship as the one that Blundeston has built up over many years. Prisoners who appreciate the support they get at the prison are unhappy at the closure which de-stabilises their rehabilitation, moves them to another prison and means in some ways they will have to start all over again. Their move will inevitably slow down their progress through their sentence and delay release for those needing decisions from the Parole Board. Prisoners will remain in prison longer, with an increased cost to the country, all for some short term political expediency, the consequences of which are never properly explained. Blundeston has some excellent training workshops. The welding workshop won the prize for being the best workshop in the country in 2011. These will of course close and the work they do in training prisoners for meaningful employment on release will be lost. A lot of money has been spent in recent months to industrialise these workshops for full week working, in line with Government policy, and that money is completely wasted; so much secrecy surrounds closure policy. Courses to address offending behaviour will go and waiting lists will increase in other prisons. The Therapeutic Community, another offending behaviour course, but taking at least 18 months and unique in the whole prison estate will be lost. It may be moved to another prison but this disrupts the work and breaks the relationship between course facilitators and prisoners which will need to be rebuilt elsewhere, if at all. More could be said but this letter must be short. A new electronic key issuing system, which must have cost a huge amount of money, has only been fully operational for 4 weeks. A new heating system has been fitted to the main wings and new roofs
to the workshops in the past 3 years. Many items of equipment not wanted elsewhere within the prison service will be just thrown away. The costs of closure are huge, but never fully explained when the closure is announced. All staff of course will be offered redeployment but that will cause huge disruption and upheaval to many families and move money out of the local economy, which is one of the poorest in the country. These are the staff who have worked hard to make the prison what it is, responded to Government policy and by their efforts, with some difficult prisoners, helped to keep the rest of us safe from those who have committed serious crime. Some staff rightly will be offered and take early release and this adds to the long term cost of closure and the loss of experience and expertise. The IMB at Blundeston would be delighted if the policy were to be reversed but are realistic to realise that such an event is highly unlikely. We however fulfil our statutory duty to identify a decision which we believe works against the welfare and rehabilitation of many prisoners and in the end does a dis-service to the whole of society. The need for cuts and the deficit are always used to justify such decisions, but we firmly believe this decision, like so many made by the MoJ in recent months, although it may sound good in the short term, has consequences for the county which will cost more in the long term.
Blundeston IMB. For more information contact the Press Officer Michael Cadman 07885282465 or mcjpbds@btinternet.com