Custodial the
Review
The Custodial Review informing the Prison, Customs & Immigration and Police Services Edition 70
Voices of female prisoners see page 20 In this issue: Palliative care suite at HMP Exeter, the opening of ‘Reflective Garden’ to the Public in Hull, Why women’s imprisonment should be reduced and News from the Youth Justice Board
www.thecustodial.co.uk For thousands of products, services and links
Fireworks Fire Protection installs world’s first LPS 1223 approved fire suppression system in The Clink at HMP Brixton. Fireworks are pleased to announce that they are installing the Hydramist® 15ampu kitchen fire suppression system. It’s the world’s first LPS1223 approved watermist fire suppression system and it protects the deep fat fryers on the site. The Clink Restaurant is situated in the old Governors house that has been used recently as administration offices within the grounds of the prison and has been replaced with a three-storey restaurant and meetings venue, which is due to open in the next few months.
trusts and philanthropic individuals to build future Clink restaurants and each training restaurant relies on the income from diners and donations to operate. Edmond Tullett, Governor, HMP Brixton says: “Brixton is more than delighted to host the third Clink training restaurant in the Regency Roundhouse which dates back to 1819. The restaurant will provide an unforgettable experience for customers and an unrivalled opportunity for prisoners to acquire marketable skills that will lead to local jobs and provide a pathway to a better life.” The kitchen will be operated by prisoners who will take on full-time positions within the restaurant under the guidance of a tutor chef and restaurant manager. Fireworks design and install specialist high pressure watermist fire suppression systems to meet a large number of different applications for the Custodial sector and have over 150 installs throughout England and Wales. As a distributor for the Hydramist product range they are now able to offer systems to cover the risk of fire in prison kitchens with the latest installation just complete at HMP Peterborough. The Hydramist® 15 AMPU offers fast and effective extinguishing of catering equipment fires, is safe for people and the environment and dramatically reduces the spread of smoke from a fire.” Kitchen Fires:The Problem
The restaurant will follow The Clink’s Five Step Programme that has been successfully implemented at the award winning and successful Clink restaurant at HMP High Down in Surrey, educating prisoners and equipping them with the skills and tools to secure employment upon their release. Chris Moore, chief executive of The Clink Charity believes Brixton will cement the future for further Clink restaurants. “Brixton was the perfect site for our next restaurant. HMP Brixton is undergoing a regeneration project and was looking for an organisation to work with to develop the building into an opportunity for rehabilitation. The central location lends itself to securing support from local businesses and members of the public, providing they are committed to The Clink’s vision and once the necessary security checks have been processed, providing real-life experience for those prisoners who make it through the selection process to join the programme.” In 2012 the charity agreed a partnership with Her Majesty’s Prison Service (HMPS) who supports the charitable initiative in a bid to open a further seven Clink Restaurants over the next four years. The charity is solely reliant on the generous support of the industry, charitable
Until now restaurant and commercial catering fryers have used dry powder or wet chemical fire suppression systems. Whilst effective at initially suppressing and extinguishing the fire these traditional systems offer little or no cooling resulting in a prolonged return to production for the kitchen. Additionally they leave a large amount of potentially hazardous residues from the chemical based fire equipment and surrounding areas which must be cleaned up before cooking can re-commence. This leaves a restaurant without a kitchen during this period. Kitchen Fires:The Solution The Hydramist® 15AMPU uses atomised tap water at high pressure to quickly and effectively extinguish the fire and prevent re-ignition by cooling the oil and hot surfaces. The Hydramist® system’s very fine droplets of water turn to steam upon contact with the flames. The steam created then smothers and extinguishes the fire in under 10 seconds. After extinguishing the fire the mist continues to cool the oil and hot surfaces to below ignition temperature in less than 30 seconds preventing re-ignition of the fire. After activation next to no clean-up is necessary as only clean water is used allowing the kitchen to be back in operation extremely quickly (in most cases within minutes). A further advantage of this system is that smoke is prevented from spreading throughout the kitchen and into other areas as the smoke particles from the fire are captured by the watermist droplets and the smoke is washed out with the fire. The Hydramist® 15AMPU uses a high pressure pump connected to the kitchen water supply resulting in a system that can run for as long, or short, as required. The Hydramist® 15AMPU Kitchen Fire Suppression System offers a cost effective, fast reacting solution to this fire risk. Using a wall mounted Hydramist® pump also eliminates storage issues associated with traditional fire suppression equipment.
For more information on the Hydramist® 15AMPU please call Lee Haines on 01953 458420 or email lhaines@fireworks-ltd.com
Contents Issue 70 Annual Subscription £30 Free to qualifying individuals
the Custodial Review Editorial Sales: Derek Cooper Tracy Johnson Tel: 01234 348878 sales@custodialreview.co.uk Administration: Lyn Mitchell Design/Production: Amanda Wesley Publisher: Steve Mitchell
2 News 10
The opening of the ‘Reflective Garden’ to the Public in Hull
12 16
Palliative care suite at HMP Exeter David Apparicio (Chrysalis Foundation) Interview By Luc Floreani
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Why women’s imprisonment should be reduced
20
Voices of female prisoners
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News from the Youth Justice Board
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News from Nacro
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More news
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British Safety Council launches 2014 International Safety Awards to celebrate excellence in occupational safety and health
The publisher will consider financial reimbursement for relevant articles. If you have an article, or wish to compose one, on a relevant topic then please contact the publisher on stevem@pirnet.co.uk. Its subject to acceptance so please contact prior to starting and will appear on the Custodial website.
Custodial Review is now accepting articles from serving officers and staff within the whole custodial industry. All articles will appear on the Custodial website and will appear in the magazine subject to the Publishers discretion. Approx length 1500 to 2000 words. We are also pleased to accept news and information. Please contact the Publisher, Steve Mitchell, stevem@custodialreview.co.uk or on 01234 348878 for more details.
The Publisher holds all copyright and any items within may not be reproduced in any way, for any purpose, without the written permission of the Publisher. This publication contains Crown Copyright material reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland.
Copyright: the Custodial Review Published by Review Magazines Ltd, Clifton House, 4a Goldington Road Bedford MK40 3NF. Tel: 01234 348878 Fax: 01223 790191 E-mail: thecustodial@pirnet.co.uk Website: www.thecustodial.co.uk HM Prisons Executive and the Home Office do not sponsor or in any way support this Publication in any substance, commodity, process, equipment, editorial or service advertised or mentioned in this book, nor are they responsible for any inaccuracy or statement in this publication. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure accuracy, the information contained within, this publication is based on submissions to the Publishers who cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. The Publishers cannot be held responsible for any article, advertisement, picture or photograph supplied by Advertisers and Associations which may contravene the Official Secrets Act or that have not first been cleared by the Home Office of Prisons Executive, should that have been necessary.
Are you getting your copy? Qualifying individuals within the Custodial sector can receive a FREE copy of the Custodial Review. If you are not receiving your copy, or you have a colleague who would like one, let us know! We will need your name, title, position & FULL address. Custodial Review is THE magazine for the Immigration, Customs, Prison and Police services. It’s growing all the time and more popular than ever. To obtain your copy, or to subscribe please forward your up-to-date information to: The Custodial, Review Magazines Ltd, Clifton House, 4a Goldington Road Bedford MK40 3NF. Tel: 01234 348878 Fax: 01223 790191 Email: sales@pirnet.co.uk or go onto www.custodialreview.co.uk and click ‘Subscribe’.
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HMP Downview - Positive and purposeful HMP Downview provided lots of high quality work, training and education for the women it held, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection of the women’s prison in Surrey. HMP Downview was last inspected in 2011 when it was recovering from the fallout of some serious staff misconduct. This recent inspection found that the prison had moved on but lessons had been learned and managers now took a more robust approach to any concerns about staff behaviour. The amount and quality of purposeful activity was better than inspectors usually see in either men’s or women’s prisons and was reinforced throughout the prison by a decent environment and generally good relationships with staff. In September 2013, the Ministry of Justice announced that HMP Downview would re-role to become a men’s prison. Inspectors were pleased to find that:
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few women were left on the wings during the day, activity places were full and busy and women spoke positively about the opportunities on offer in the prison; staff and prisoners had mutually high expectations of each other and generally good individual relationships meant most women had their needs identified and met;
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most women said they felt safe and there was a caring approach to the minority of women who might be victimised by others or at risk of self-harm;
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drug treatment and measures to restrict the supply of illegal drugs were good; and
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most women had effective help in obtaining housing, work or training and health services on release and the post-release support for women with drug and alcohol problems was particularly effective.
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violence reduction procedures were weak and recording of disciplinary processes and the use of force, strip-clothing and special cells was inadequate;
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more thought needed to be given the most vulnerable women the prison held, such as those with mental health problems;
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too many women identified as being at risk of suicide or self-harm were held in segregation without evidence of the exceptional circumstances required to justify it;
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there were significant deficiencies in offender management and planning processes and too many women came to the prison without the required assessment of their offending risks; and
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A director has been chosen to lead the new National Probation Service (NPS) after the candidate who was due to take up the post stepped down for personal reasons Colin Allars, the current director of probation within the National Offender Management Service, has been chosen to take up the new role following Mike Maiden’s withdrawal after an initial appointment in August last year. Sarah Payne’s appointment as director of the NPS in Wales is unaffected and the two will work together to lead the new service. It is due to launch in April 2014 and tasked with protecting the public from 30,000 of the most dangerous offenders in England and Wales each year. The appointments mark a crucial step forward in the delivery of wide ranging reforms to the way offenders are rehabilitated that will help tackle the country’s stubbornly high reoffending rates. The new directors will work alongside private and voluntary sector organisations who will be delivering rehabilitation services to low and medium risk offenders through 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies across England and Wales. Justice Minister Jeremy Wright said: “Unfortunately personal family reasons have meant that Mike Maiden is no longer able to take up this role. We wish him all the best.
Under radical changes to probation set out in May the NPS will work alongside a range of private and voluntary sector organisations replacing the existing 35 probation trusts. It will have overall responsibility for public protection, building upon the expertise and professionalism of the existing service. The NPS will also be charged with ensuring tough action is taken where lower level offenders breach the terms of their licence or community order, including missing appointments, refusing to engage with their rehabilitation or slipping back into drugs and alcohol abuse. Commenting on his appointment Colin Allars said:
the range of family visits was limited. Nick Hardwick said:
“Overall, Downview had significantly improved since our last inspection. Its very good education, training and work opportunities created a positive and purposeful ethos and this, combined with a generally caring attitude by staff, meant that most women were safe and had their needs met. However, some sloppy processes need to be sorted out to avoid unnecessary risks. Other priorities should be working with the Prison Service regionally to address backlogs in its offender management processes, and improving its support for women whose needs are not typical of the population as a whole, and most particularly, for the small number of very vulnerable women.” the Custodial Review
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“I am delighted that Colin Allars has accepted the challenge to lead the NPS in England. His experience and passion for the service make him well qualified to lead this new and critical body.”
However, inspectors were concerned to find that:
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“Probation has a critical part to play in protecting the public and reducing reoffending. I look forward to taking on this important role, keeping communities safe from serious offenders.”
Michael Spurr, Chief Executive Officer of the National Offender Management Service, said: “This report highlights the improvements that have been made at Downview as a result of the good work of the governor and her staff. “The decision to re-role Downview follows a review of capacity across the female estate and how best to meet the needs of the population.
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Cracks beginning to show, warns chief inspector of prisons Prisons are still largely safe and decent places, but the quantity and quality of work and training available for prisoners has plummeted, and addressing offending behaviour was often a low priority, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, publishing his annual report. He also warned that financial and organisational pressures across all forms of custody meant managers ran the risk of becoming preoccupied with targets and processes and could lose sight of their fundamental responsibilities for the safety, security and rehabilitation of those they hold. During 2012–13, the National Offender Management Service had to make savings of £246m on top of the £228m savings delivered in 2011–12. Ministers launched proposals to ‘transform rehabilitation’ outcomes for all offenders and began major reviews of the
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juvenile and women’s custodial estate. It is welcome, given those pressures, that safety and respect outcomes were maintained overall. During this time:
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the total prison population fell from 87,868 at the end of March 2012 to 84,596 at the end of March 2013
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the number of self-inflicted deaths in prison reduced from 66 in 2011-12 to 51 in 2012-13
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incidents of self-harm continued to fall to 22,687 in 2012-13, a drop of almost 14% over a two-year period
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the number of recorded assaults fell from 15,577 to 14,052 over the year, a drop of about 10%
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over three-quarters of prisoners said staff treated them with respect.
However, the positive overall findings and data hide some exceptions. The number of self-harm incidents in the adult estate has fallen in total, exclusively driven by a large and impressive fall in the number of self-harm incidents in women’s prisons. The number of self-harm incidents in men’s prisons rose over the same period. The fall in the number of assaults appears to result from the sharp fall in the number of young people in custody. The levels of violence in many adult male prisons have risen.
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Nick Hardwick said: “Too many prisoners spend too long in their cells with nothing constructive to do, and when they are in classes or work, these are often of insufficient quality. Equipping prisoners with the skills, habits and attitudes they need to get and hold down a job is an essential part of the rehabilitation process. Only a few years ago we heard a lot about ‘working prisons’ and making prisons places of productive activity. More recently there has been a deafening silence on this. And while reducing the risk that a prisoner will reoffend should be seen as a key part of the job of everyone working in a prison, it was frequently relegated to a specialist role and insufficiently integrated with the activities of the prison as a whole.” From April 2012 to March 2013, the Inspectorate published 87 individual inspection reports on prisons, police custody suites, immigration removal centres and other custodial establishments. Six thematic reports were published, either singly or jointly with other inspectorates. Almost two-thirds (65%) of the recommendations followed up in the course of this year’s inspections had been achieved or partially achieved.
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Court custody facilities in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire - greater oversight needed to improve standards Most detainees were treated with care, but greater scrutiny was needed to drive up standards in court cells, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons. He published the report of an inspection of court custody facilities in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The inspection was the fourth in a new programme of inspections of court custody carried out by HM Inspectorate of Prisons. At the time of inspection there was one crown court, four magistrates’ courts and one combined court in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. GEO Amey had been contracted to provide the custody and escort operations for HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) in the region. Inspectors were concerned to find that:
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HMCTS were uncertain about the extent and nature of their role in relation to the provision of custody facilities at their courts;
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the lack of regular court user group meetings at some courts meant that formal channels for discussing custody matters, in particular detainee care, were insufficient;
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provision for the safety of detainees, staff and visitors to the court cells was poor; staffing levels were not sufficient in every court to deal with refractory detainees and in some instances, the care of vulnerable detainees was inadequate;
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other than a cell-sharing risk assessment, there was no formal risk assessment process;
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the use of handcuffs and routine searching was excessive and sometimes inappropriate;
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staff received no training in basic safeguarding, child protection procedures or caring for young people;
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staff made little effort to inform detainees of their rights and entitlements in custody;
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there were no blankets or warm clothing despite the cells at some courts being uncomfortably cold and detainees spending up to several hours in them; and
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staff seemed reluctant to use the health care providers who were available.
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However, inspectors were pleased to find that:
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most detainees said they felt safe;
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relationships between staff and detainees were generally good and, despite some gaps, equality and diversity were reasonably well promoted;
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court custody staff ensured they had the necessary authority to detain a person, and there were no long delays in releasing people who had been bailed or acquitted;
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interactions between staff and detainees were mostly professional and courteous;
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other than handcuffing, the use of force was rare, but well documented and monitored; and
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cleanliness at most courts was good, but some cells needed a deep clean.
complaints were normally dealt with appropriately;
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about half of detainees said they had enough to do, more than at the last inspection, and paid work places had increased by about a third;
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the provision of health care was good; and
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visits arrangements and access to telephones was reasonably good.
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Nick Hardwick said: “In summary, our concerns about safety, staffing levels and the inadequate provision for some of the most vulnerable detainees overshadowed the finding that in many respects, most detainees were treated with care. The physical condition of some cells was unsatisfactory. HMCTS needs to exercise greater scrutiny and oversight in its monitoring of standards. There needs to be better communications systems to ensure that staff understand policies and practices so that the conditions of detention can improve. Staff should be aware of basic safeguarding, child protection, the specific needs of young people in custody, mental health and substance misuse issues.”
Brook House Immigration Removal Centre - a mixed picture Brook House had made some improvements but immigration casework needed to progress more promptly, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection of the immigration removal centre near Gatwick. Brook House holds up to 448 adult male detainees who are subject to immigration control. There had been considerable changes to the population since its last inspection in 2011. The throughput of detainees had increased significantly with the average length of stay down to about a month. There were also far fewer ex-prisoners who now comprised only a minority within the population. Brook House remained a safe place, but this assessment was finely balanced. The increased throughput of detainees was arguably Brook House’s greatest challenge. Inspectors were pleased to find that:
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levels of violence were low, use of force was managed well and the use of separation had reduced significantly;
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despite the imposing prison-like structure and character of the centre, Brook House remained a respectful institution overall;
However, inspectors were concerned to find that:
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long waits for legal advice and an overwhelmed on-site Home Office contact management team meant detainees were unable to get information or help with their cases;
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detainees were too often subject to needless night-time transfers, and arrangements to receive new detainees were slow and poor;
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there was considerable frustration among detainees which was reflected in high levels of self-harm;
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although detainees could be out of their rooms for extended periods, they were locked up too early at night;
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preparation for removal or release was still not good enough and although the centre had an excellent welfare officer, reliance on one individual was too great;
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there was a failure to assess the needs of individuals on arrival and a lack of a systematic preparation before someone was discharged; and
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some behaviour by escort contractors who removed individuals on charter flights was heavy-handed and disproportionate. Nick Hardwick said:
‘Brook House held too many detainees who were not sufficiently well informed by the Home Office, and who were experiencing considerable frustration and confusion as a result. However, overall this is a reasonable report, and the improvements we observed at our last inspection had been sustained and in some cases built upon.’
British-made quality and reliability from the Supersafe range of mattresses and pillows by Carpenter As the number one name in custodial bedding, Carpenter’s Supersafe range of mattresses and pillows offers constant new levels of innovation, with products designed specifically for the demanding environments of prison cells, custody suites and immigration centres. The Supersafe all-in-one mattress with built in pillow is the latest development from Carpenter and is offered with a vandal resistant cover, which now incorporates welded seams reducing the opportunity of sabotage while still providing flammability performance as specified by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). All Supersafe products utilise Fireseal foam cores, a world class fire retardant, flexible foam, ensuring finished mattresses meet the full requirement of BS7177,Very High Hazard and FTS15, making them ideal for high-risk environments. Carpenter’s Supersafe range is supplied into all of the UK’s publically operated prisons and a significant share of privately operated prisons, along with the police custody cell market.Various cover options are available, one such being Polytran which can be easily wiped clean, therefore extending the life cycle of the finished mattress or pillow. Supersafe mattresses and pillows are produced and recycled in the UK. Carpenter’s zero waste system has saved the MOJ in excess of £1million per year based on landfill and incineration costs. For further information on Carpenter Ltd Supersafe range contact: sales.uk@carpenter.com
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HMP Bristol – some significant concerns Progress had not been sustained at HMP Bristol, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection of the local jail. HMP Bristol is a medium-sized local prison, much of it dating from the 19th century. It receives remand and convicted prisoners, often straight from the streets. At its last inspection in 2010, inspectors noted improvements and described a well led prison that had a clear sense of direction. The prison had recently undergone a major reorganisation of management and staffing and this inspection noted several significant concerns. Prisoner turnover at Bristol was extremely high, with over 70% of prisoners staying for less than three months. This made the job of managers and staff very difficult. Inspectors were concerned to find that:
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although levels of violence were similar to comparable prisons, too many prisoners felt unsafe or victimised; procedures to tackle violence and delinquency were lacking; the quality of staff supervision on the wings was not always adequate; significant numbers of prisoners reported that it was easy to get drugs in the prison or that they had developed a problem while there; prisoners could not get enough clean clothes or clothes that fitted, adequate bedding or cleaning materials; much of the prison was dirty and prisoners complained of cockroach infestation; inspectors observed some disturbing and dismissive attitudes from some staff; the promotion of equality had been neglected and had only recently begun to receive appropriate attention; during the working day it was normal to find about half the prison’s population locked in cell; and there was only enough work, training and activity for two-thirds of the population but even this was not used efficiently with much unoccupied.
However, inspectors were pleased to find that:
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support for those at risk of suicide or self-harm was reasonably good and the prison had been proactive in developing work to promote adult safeguarding for the clearly vulnerable; security procedures were broadly proportionate; foreign national prisoners received some helpful support; and the prison was largely meeting the resettlement challenges and needs presented by a very short-term population and was addressing a range of demands.
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Nick Hardwick said:
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‘This is a concerning report. Bristol is an important institution serving the South West. A sense of drift had returned to the prison. Some useful work was being done to help manage offending risk and to reintegrate prisoners at the conclusion of their sentences. But the experience of prisoners was poor. The priorities we identified included improving the environment, improving staff culture and ensuring prisoners have something useful to do that will equip them for the future.’ Michael Spurr, Chief Executive Officer of the National Offender Management Service, said: ‘At the time of the inspection, Bristol had been through a significant period of restructure and change. This, coupled with the prison’s highly transient population, presented a challenging time for the Governor and her staff. ‘Despite this, it is pleasing to see that good work was taking place in resettlement and offender management and that the needs of prisoners were largely being met. Decisive action has already been taken to build on this work and address concerns raised in the report, particularly in the areas of training and purposeful activity. ‘The prison and its staff will receive the support necessary to help raise performance and deliver a safe and constructive environment for the prisoners it holds.’
HMP Holloway impressive progress on safety HMP Holloway has become a safer prison, but still has work to do, said Nick Hardwick, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection of the women’s prison in north London. HMP Holloway is the largest women’s prison in Europe. Its size and poor design make it a difficult establishment to run and in which to meet the complex needs of the often very vulnerable women held. Over many years, repeat inspections have been very critical of the treatment and conditions of the women held there. However, this inspection was the most positive yet. At a time when the women’s custodial estate is being reviewed, the significant advantages of the prison’s location should be set against its poor design. Most women, particularly the most vulnerable, were held safely and treated decently.Women said they valued being held close to their families and a wide range of community agencies provided good support. Inspectors were pleased to find that:
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support for women who self-harmed was sensitively delivered, and the level of selfharm had decreased considerably; there had not been a self-inflicted death since 2007; Page 8
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reception and first night arrangements were good; there were few serious violent incidents and the prison was proactive in managing problematic behaviour; the use of illicit drugs was relatively low and the potential for misuse of diverted medications well managed; staff-prisoners relationships were generally good; the mother and baby unit was underused but decent and safe; and an impressive range of partner organisations were involved in resettlement work.
However, inspectors were concerned to find that:
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women spent long periods in escort vehicles shared with men before arriving at the prison; the unwieldy layout of the buildings make them difficult to supervise and although most women said they felt safe, more than at similar prisons said otherwise; the prison did not do enough to help women maintain or rebuild positive relationships with their children and families; while there were enough activity places for the population, too few were used and a process to move prisoners to activities was not working; and achievement levels and the quality of teaching needed attention, as well as punctuality and attendance.
Nick Hardwick said: “Some of Holloway’s most significant strengths and weaknesses are outside its direct control. Its location is a major strength, its size and design a major weakness. However, there are things it can do to mitigate its weaknesses and build on its strengths. More needs to be done to ensure that the impressive progress on safety is securely embedded, and women’s remaining and real anxieties better understood and addressed. Better provision of activity would make the prison a safer and more respectful place. Family support work is surprisingly underdeveloped and yet it is of critical importance to the women held, and something that Holloway should be well placed to deliver effectively. Nevertheless, overall, although there is still more to do, this remains the most positive inspection this inspectorate has yet made of HMP Holloway. Michael Spurr, Chief Executive Officer of the National Offender Management Service, said: “Staff at Holloway deal with a really challenging population, including many vulnerable women with complex needs, and I am pleased that this inspection acknowledges the excellent work being done by the Governor and her staff. “The progress made reflects their commitment, care and dedication. The task is difficult and we will use the recommendations in the report to support further improvement over the next 12 months.”
Dualway – The unique antibarricade door solution Since its launch in October the unique DUALWAY Anti-Barricade door system from Cooke Brothers has already generated a huge amount of interest leading to a surge in business for the company from a number of industry leading names operating in the specialist Custodial, Secure Units, Mental Health and Hospital Healthcare sectors. Designed to suit either new build or retrofit applications where individual doorsets are required within an existing facility, the Dual Way Door System provides unrestricted and immediate access into a room in a situation where a patient has barricaded himself or herself in. The Dual Way system utilises a frame within a frame principal, allowing for a standard 44mm or 54mm doorset to be mounted within a secondary high security steel outer frame. In everyday use the standard inward opening doorset operates Dualway door open position as a normal door, providing full 90-degree access using a purpose designed full height Anti-ligature continuous hinge. The outer frame is produced from preformed steel providing rigid support, whilst the high level of security engagement is by means of purpose design heavy duty mechanical hook bolt locking as standard or with the option of an electronically powered locking system where required. In an emergency or barricaded door situation the door and inner frame can be quickly released enabling the complete doorset to swing outwards allowing immediate entry into the room. Access is achieved by releasing the dual hook locks mortised into the outer frame and operated by unique security profile keys or where specified via an electromagnetic access control system. Dualway door closed position To discover more about the unique DUALWAY Anti-Barricade Door System please contact the sales team at Cooke Brothers Ltd on 01922 740011. Email: sales@cookebrothers.co.uk or to view the latest DUALWAY video by visiting the web site www.cookebrothers.co.uk
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The opening of the ‘Reflective Garden’ to the Public in Hull Balfour Beatty joined celebrations in Hull yesterday for the opening of a new community space which offers young people the opportunity to learn about nonconfrontational approaches to violence. The ‘Reflective Garden’ has been relocated from Her Majesty’s Prison Everthorpe to Hull Kingston Rovers’ MS3 Craven Park stadium, with the support of Balfour Beatty’s Charitable Trust and the Prince’s Trust. The garden features a dead tree on one side representing a life cut short, as well as various art installations. The transition to healthier and more positive relationships is represented on the other side of the garden with a healthy tree and a sculpture which represents the strengths found in family and friends. The garden was the idea of Senior Horticultural Tutor at HMP Everthorpe, Glen Jackson, and its components were created by offenders inside the prison utilising skillsets such as construction, carpentry, painting, tiling and horticulture. The garden received recognition through a Yorkshire and Humber
Prince’s Trust ‘Celebrate Success Community Impact Award’. It was also entered into the Tatton Park Flower Show in 2011, where it was awarded the Gold Medal and Best in Show accolades.
the local community and schools in East Hull, and educational workshops will be delivered to young people and school groups by the Hull Kingston Rovers Community Trust.
workplace wherever it can, and this garden and the education it can provide is a prime example of how Balfour Beatty aims to support the communities in which it works.”
As part of its Building Better Futures programme, aimed at supporting disadvantaged young people, Balfour Beatty funded and carried out the removal and reinstallation of the garden to Hull Kingston Rovers’ MS3 Craven Park stadium with the support of its supply chain partners.
Allan Grantham, Project Director, Balfour Beatty said: “I am delighted we have been able to fund and support the relocation of this truly innovative ‘Reflective Garden’.
Ed Cornmell, Governor of HMP Everthorpe, said: “We are very pleased to see the ‘Reflective Garden’ being opened to the public here at Craven Park following its success at RHS Tatton Park.
The garden will be available to
“Balfour Beatty’s charitable programme Building Better Futures aims to support disadvantaged young people to find their place in society and the
“Everthorpe prison works hard to prevent crime and to help our prisoners become law abiding citizens upon release. It has been a pleasure to work with the Prince’s Trust, Hull Kingston Rovers and Balfour Beatty on this project and through it I know that we will truly deliver on our mission to prevent crime and support the community.” Hull Kingston Rovers has provided a home for the garden at its stadium in East Hull. Going forward, Hull KR has created a programme of workshops for the East Hull community to use the garden. Neil Hudgell, Chairman, Hull Kingston Rovers, said: “We are pleased to be supporting this project. By relocating the garden to Craven Park we will make it more accessible to a larger number of people within the local community.”
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Palliative care suite at HMP Exeter Ian Napper is the Head of Learning, Skills, Employment and Training at HMP Exeter. He joined the Prison Service 6 years ago after an interesting career history. He left school at 16 with few qualifications and then embarked on a 5 year apprentice course at Exeter Print College becoming a print manager at the local newspaper, the Express and Echo, several years later. 18 months after qualifying with his HNC he left and spent 16 years as a professional musician specialising in the guitar, something he still enjoys playing to this day. 14 years ago he returned to print in a senior management role at large privately owned European commercial printers. However at the age of 42 he decided that he wanted the ‘output’ part of his life to have a greater social impact. This resulted in 14 months of study to gain the teaching qualifications that resulted in a job with Centre for British Teachers (CfBT) who concentrated his educational efforts in the custodial field. Russell Land is the Site Manager at HMP Exeter; he has been in the Prison Service for 25 years, all of it at HMP Exeter. Prior to entering the service Russell was signed up to one of the last 5 year apprenticeships in a local Joinery shop as a Carpenter / Joiner obtaining his craft certificate and then advanced craft and membership of the institute of carpenters. He then spent 7 years in shop fitting before starting at HMP Exeter as a Civilian Carpenter and as the opportunities arose he moved up through the Grades taking all the appropriate exams required. He became a higher craftsman that then very soon became an Industrial Grade 1 managing the building desk until the implementation of ROWD (Reorganisation of Works Departments. He has been the Site Manager for approximately 7 years with 6 months of that being temporarily promoted. The population of the country is getting older and the population of the Prisons mirrors this. It is bringing to the fore the issue of caring for prisoners at the end of their life. The care that is available outside prison has become more extensive and effective, as have the facilities that can be made available. To this end new palliative care suite has been opened at Exeter and Ian Napper invited Custodial Review to discuss this. Custodial Review When did the Palliative care suite come into operation at HMP Exeter and why was the unit built? Ian Napper The opening day was in May this year, and its 1st patient was in residence a week later. The Palliative suite was built because social care for the elderly has to be addressed by the Prison Service. This is because prisoners, like the general population, are living longer. This means that end of life care becomes an issue that has to be addressed more frequently. The trigger for the creation was a conversation I had with the staff when F wing was a “hospital” run jointly by HMPS and the NHS service provider. One of their prisoners was dying from cancer and they were treating this person in a medical cell in the hospital wing. The prisoner’s care needs increased to hospice levels and he was transferred to a hospice facility six hours before he died. The
the Custodial Review
Top pic: Ian Napper, Head of Learning, Skills, Employment and Training.
medical staff felt that although they could treat the patient’s symptoms and issues adequately with the facilities available in the prison, the bland, characterless environment left much to be desired for someone at end of life. Put simply the staff were affected and felt that they could have discharged their duty of care to that man in a more caring and compassionate
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way by having a more professional facility which not only offered dignity to the patient but also improved resources and facilities for delivering that care. We already had some initiatives in place to resolve this, as we were partners of The Kings Fund ‘Enhancing the Healing Environment’
The garden just outside the suite window.
RL At first we only had the funding to converting one cell into a care room. The room chosen was one in the medical wing and already had a bathroom attached to it. However it was very dated, the shower unit and other equipment wasn’t fit for purpose and the whole room needed upgrading if it was to be used frequently and be fit for purpose.
strategy and we built on these by obtaining more funding to change one cell into the type of care unit that would typically be found in a hospice. Once built, we planned for this to be used as a regional resource as there are very important benefits in caring for someone within the prison system. They include: a facility that offers dignity at end of life; resources that allow our medical staff to
care for their patients in a manner equal to the community; the reduction of external bed watches. However, the main driver was that the environment equals that of a hospice. CR Asking Russell Land, the Site Manager: What was involved in the construction of the Care suite and the relative’s rest room?
To take the process forward, five people from the prison formed a group and they put together a set of proposals of what was needed. We then we brought in a team to bring the proposals up to the fully designed stage from which the project could be built. During this process one of the group had a series of meetings with the local Primary Care Trust during which the PCT agreed to match the existing funding taking the available budget to ÂŁ50,000. With the extra funding it became possible to build a facility in an adjacent cell where relatives could relax, take some time out, make a hot drink and get away from the pressures for a while. We had this room designed by the same team who had worked on the main room. CR What was designed into the rooms to improve the look and environment for the patient, and what was the reasoning behind these? continues overleaf u
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Palliative care suite at HMP Exeter continued
The Relatives room.
We have equipped the room so that it is fully DDA compliant and it contains a lot of high specification equipment including a patient call system and a hoist that is used to transfer the patient between the bed and the shower area. CR How long did the build process take from start to finish and was it an ‘in house’ job? RL The job was put out to tender and completed by the contractors in about 8 weeks. What we now have is a palliative care room where an end of life patient can be cared for to the same standard as a hospice. Next to it, and separated by a glass block wall, is a bathroom and there is also a room for a relative where they can go for some downtime, make a cup of tea and relax. CR The relative’s room gives free access to a secure area, this must represent a security issue, how did you resolve it?
RL We were told that one of the last faculties that remain to a patient is their sight, so we built the connecting wall between the patient’s room and the bathroom out of glass blocks, this enables the presence of people in the room to be something the patient is aware of. Originally we wanted to have a larger window in the main room, ideally having the Custodial Review
patio doors going out onto a garden area however this last option was just not feasible for security reasons. We also fitted Velux sun pipes to give the rooms more natural light and this also enables the occupant to know what time of day it is, as it’s also important to a patient who is unable to get out of bed to have some idea of the natural passing of time. Page 14
RL F wing is the social care area for the prison, it’s locked off from the rest of the establishment and is therefore isolated, once you are in it you cannot leave without keys. This ability to isolate enables an acceptable level of security to be maintained. Getting people to and from the suite requires some organisation, when the first patient was admitted his sister and cousin used the facility.Various members of staff assisted in taking them across to F wing
when they arrived and left, these included the Chaplain and the Governor. CR Were there any other touches that were able to be made that brought some light relief to the patient? RL The Works Dept came up with the idea of changing the view that the patient could see if they were able to look through the window. Initially it would have been fences, floodlights and barbed wire, however by installing a couple of brightly painted beach huts and some shingle onto a raised platform the view now is a lot less austere. Ian Napper re-joined the conversation: There is a theme for the F wing area that was bought about thanks to support from the Kings Fund. These themes are based upon the West Country coastline. For instance on entering F wing there are paintings of trawlers; the corridors are hung with pictures of beach side scenes, taken by the staff. The palliative suite is painted in very calming colours representative of the same theme.
CR On a more fundamental note, is a prison, no matter how well adapted, the right place for someone to spend there last hours in? Would they not be in a better environment that already had better views and an absence of floodlights and fences if they were at a hospice? IN A good case can be made for that, at end of life there are increasing degrees of medical care required. We can now offer medical care to a higher degree than before and if or when the point is reached where we can no longer provide the level of care needed, we will transfer the patient to a fully-fledged hospice. We are a prison and we are responsible for the welfare of prisoners, some of who are at the end of their lives. We now have the resources to take care of them within our own walls to a very much higher level than before. So the external bed watches, additional pressures on staff and financial resources required, do not become necessary until much later in the patient’s care plan. This is not only more efficient in terms of cost, it’s also decent in terms of our fulfilling our duty of care and it’s the right thing to do. In some cases we may Page 15
have to transfer the patient to a hospice but whatever is appropriate will be determined by proper care planning which takes account of the patients’ wishes. CR If you are to become a regional facility for end of life patients do you have the capacity on F wing to do so? And is there room to expand the facility? IN We do have the room to expand but at the moment the facility is not in constant use, so this facility is sufficient for our requirements at present. CR What interest have you had in the facility form outside HMP Exeter? IN The project, named the ‘Jubilee Suite’, has been put forward for a Butler trust award and we have also had a Royal visit! Princess Anne, as patron to The Butler Trust, visited the prison and looked at the facility in October of this year she opened the facility officially as part of her visit. Thank you both for talking to the Review. the Custodial Review
There is nothing about a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to become a butterfly. Or.. ‘Most people want to change, they just need a helping hand and some guidance.’ David Apparicio (Chrysalis Foundation) David Apparicio is the creator of the Chrysalis Programme. During his work as a magistrate he developed his ambition to change the world for offenders. Recently invited to become a Fellow by the Trustees of the Royal Society of Arts in recognition of his ‘innovative work in offender rehabilitation and development’, Apparicio was also awarded with a place on the 2009 Courvoisier Future 500 list of innovative business brains and creative talent. Q: You are very passionate about inspiring young people. Why is the Chrysalis Programme important in today’s society? A: I believe that we as a society have created the growing problem of what I call the ‘Dis. Generation’ Remember where you heard it first! We’ve all heard of the ‘thirty-somethings’, ‘baby-boomers’, ‘YUPPIES’, ‘NEETs’, etc, but the ‘Dis Generation’ are a generation or two of young people that are: disaffected, disillusioned, disengaged, disconnected, disadvantaged, disavowed, dispossessed, discarded, disregarded, disappointed. They lack the ‘essential life skills’ that would enable them to interact with other human beings around them. Many of these individuals end up on the wrong side of the law. Many bump around not sure what to do with their lives and are given little support and/or guidance to help them move forward.
Combining my experience as a Justice of the Peace (Magistrate) and designer of management training programmes (Previously Head of Learning and Development within The Royal Mail), I personally funded the research, design and piloting of the innovative development solution called The Chrysalis Programme. the Custodial Review
Through this research it became apparent that: Prison sentences are not succeeding in turning the majority of offenders away from crime and short prison sentences simply in reducing re-offending. Sadly, the Criminal justice system operates a ‘Broken Business Model’ with 75% failure rate that would not be accepted in any other industry. What was interesting was the approach in the criminal justice system is very different to that of the business world when it attempts to close the gap between actual and desired behaviours/performance. In the Criminal Justice System the intervention in a sentencing situation is primarily to administer custodial or community based punishment (negative re-enforcement), whereas in the business world where there is a gap in behaviours, you would aim to close that gap through the provision of knowledge, skills, practice, behaviours/values (training) that moves the individual to our desired state (positive reinforcement) – Creating Capability!
activities, problem solving, listening and discussions. The difference between the Chrysalis Programme and most other programmes is that we focus on positive reinforcement that helps create capability, increases self-confidence, self-belief, self-esteem in participants by providing them with, what we call ‘essential Life skills’ which enables them to personally own and drive positive, sustainable change in their lives. We focus on telling them what they can and should do and how to achieve positive outcomes (positive re-enforcement), rather on telling them what they mustn’t do or should not have done (negative reinforcement). Q: As a society, do you think our judicial system is working for us?
Q: The programme is achieving amazing results, How does the Chrysalis Programme work?
A: No it is not. Quite simply our current UK criminal justice system is a broken business model with a resultant 75% failure rate (75% reoffend with two year of leaving prison). This failure rate would not be tolerated in any other industry/business. So why do we accept it here? So how can we change the system you ask me? Well, simple things…
A The Chrysalis Programme consists of a series of guided learning sessions/modules delivered using a mixture of presentations, group and individual exercises, practical
1) Let’s Stop talking about Rehabilitation when we mean Reintegration. We have historically used the term Rehabilitation when talking about the holistic approach to offender
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Interview By Luc Floreani management, when in fact what we really need to be focussing on is how do we Re-Integrate someone back into their lives, relationship with partner, family, their local communities and society as a whole? We know that this done well greatly reduces the individual’s propensity to reoffend.
2) Let’s stop talking about training and start talking about Learning & Development’ Let me explain.There is a fundamental difference between Training and Learning & Development. Training is about the acquisition of skills or knowledge and then the application of these in current roles/situations. It is often compliancedriven, focuses on groups, is short term and about ‘doing’. Learning & Development is about attitudinal and behavioural change – it provides individuals with future capability. It is about behaviour change, focuses on the individual, creates long term change and is about ‘Thinking’. 3) Let’s rename the Minister for Prisons (and rehabilitation) to the Minister for Reducing Reoffending and Reintegration. The business guru, Peter Drucker advocated that success is based on the simple insight of: ‘What gets measured gets managed; and what gets managed gets done’. Based on that premise surely we should have a Minister for Reducing Re-offending with a single performance measure of reducing re-offending, not a Minister for Prisons whose tasks is to ensure the effective utilisation and management of an
expensive resource (the Prison Estate)! 4) Let’s stop solely focussing on punishment (negative reinforcement) and start looking at development interventions (positive reinforcement). We all know/understand that negative reinforcement (punishment) alone, is extremely unlikely to produce a positive outcome. 5) Let’s stop talking about changing behaviours and start focussing on changing Thinking and Attitude (changing paradigms) Q: What event in your life made you change your ordinary state to one where people are taking notice of your ideas and magazines like Trebuchet now want to talk to you? A: Basically I became frustrated, as a Justice of the Peace (Magistrate), at the level of reoffending in the UK and decided to explore/ research why re-offending levels were so high. Typically in the UK, 75% of individuals reoffend within two years of release from Prison at the cost of £13 Billion per annum. [Source: Social Exclusion Unit] I simply felt that there must be a better way! Then a thought popped in my head: “There is nothing about a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to become a butterfly” This has fuelled my vision and passion for change.
Chrysalis programmes to businesses, Hospitals, Prisons, Probation (Young Offenders,Veterans, Lifers, Sex Offenders, general population and vulnerable prisoners), Drug and Alcohol addicts, Schools, Housing/Homeless. Over the last five years, we’ve had over 500 Offenders/Ex-offenders participants. Focussing on just HMP/YOI Reading over the past 2 years, we’ve had 114 attendees, with 82.5% (94) completing and 60% (70) of ‘completers’ not reoffending. This equated to a public purse saving of £10,672,200 [Source: Social Exclusion Unit] The Chrysalis Programme, 485 Wellingborough Road, Abington, Northampton NN3 3HN For more information email: info@chrysalisprogramme.com Telephone: 07801 438140 or visit www.chrysalisprogramme.com
Q) Why is getting involved in the Chrysalis Programme important? “Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members — the last, the least, the littlest” - Cardinal Roger Mahony. Remember: If we helped just one persistent/prolific offender to change, this would equate to preventing tens/hundreds of offences from being committed, which in turn would mean that hundreds/thousands of victims would be spared the trauma/impacts of crime, and could equate to hundreds of thousands of pounds (if not millions of pounds) of savings… and of course we are not going to be aiming for just one! Most people want to change, they just need a helping hand and some guidance. Q: The programme is already in prisons across the UK and now you are starting in Australia with the St Vincent De Paul organisation. How does the programme transfer? A:The reason that The Chrysalis Programme is so transferrable is because it is a world class Personal Leadership and Personal Effectiveness Development Programme which has been created to provide individuals with the skills, knowledge, behaviours, a change in Thinking and Attitude to enable individuals that want to own and drive personal change in their lives. It is not an offender programme. Because of my personal passion, I happen to be using it with offenders/ ex-offenders. To date we have delivered Page 17
If you have a colleague who would like one, let us know! We will need your name, title, position & FULL address. To obtain your copy, or to subscribe please forward your upto-date information to: The Custodial, Clifton House, 4a Goldington Road, Bedford MK40 3NF. Tel: 01234 348878, Fax: 01223 790191 Email: sales@pirnet.co.uk or go onto www.custodialreview.co.uk and click ‘Subscribe’. the Custodial Review
Why women’s imprisonment should be reduced ‘Community provision is a more effective way of reducing women’s offending whilst minimising the cost to Society’ states Liz Corrigan, Bristol Magistrate and President of Soroptimist International Club of Bristol. ‘Many women in prison have themselves been the victims of serious crime including domestic violence, sexual abuse and rape. For far too long, prisons have been full of women who have mental health needs, suffer from drug and alcohol addictions and struggle with debt’ In partnership with the Prison Reform Trust, Soroptimist International clubs of the UK (an organisation for professional and business women)are working together in a campaign to end the unnecessary imprisonment of women within the UK. Recently in September the Bristol Club held an evening conference entitled ‘Reducing Women’s Imprisonment’ to raise awareness of women’s justice reform and to encourage those present to take action locally. It was extremely well attended by policymakers, criminal justice practitioners and many Bristol Dignitaries. The photo shows Liz Corrigan with many of the speakers, including Juliet Lyon CBE Director of The Prison Reform Trust. A full debate followed the main conference when it was agreed that women’s imprisonment should be reduced for non-violent crimes. There has been a consensus throughout the UK for over ten years, based on evidence, that community solutions that address the causes of women’s offending are more effective than prison in reducing crime and minimising the cost to society. Despite this the number of women in prison across the United Kingdom has increased significantly in the same period, and approximately 13,500 women are now sent to prison each year. Over 80% of sentenced women entering prison have been convicted of non-violent offences. Many have young children. Self-harm incidents are common. In the twelve months ending June 2012, women accounted for 31% of all self-harm incidents in prison in England and Wales despite representing only 5% of the prison population ‘One of the first prisons I visited was Holloway. I saw at first hand the very different challenge we face with women offenders’ says Chris Grayling, MP, Secretary of State for Justice (13th Nov 2012) There are thirteen women’s prisons in England. There were 4,141 women and girls in prisons as at 2nd. November 2012. Women are imprisoned the Custodial Review
an average of 55 miles from home. Theft and handling stolen goods accounted for 36% of women entering prison under sentence – the most common offence. In Wales, there are no women’s prisons. In September 2012 there were 247 women in prison in England with home addresses in Wales. Half of them were being held at Eastwood Prison near Bristol and over a quarter were in London prisons. A further 10% were at Styal prison in Cheshire and 9% at Drake Hall in Staffordshire, with the remainder dispersed in other prisons across England. According to the 2007 Corston report, 44% of women on remand have attempted suicide at some time in their lives. Likewise, between 1999 and 2011, nine women in HMP Eastwood Park, and twelve women in HMP Styal,took their own lives. John Long, Assistant Chief Constable Association of Chief Police Officers states;’Reducing the imprisonment of women is an important mission, which the Police Service is determined to be part of. ‘ Sending women to prison who have committed petty and non-violent offences causes unnecessary harm to children and often exacerbates problems that contributed to their offending in the first place. It has also been proven to be less effective than community sentencing in reducing reoffending. Imprisoning mothers for non-violent offences carries a cost to children and the state of more than £17 million over a ten year period (new economics foundation, 2008)Women’s Centres such as Eden House in Bristol are a great way for mothers who have offended to not just get carted off to prison’ says Liz Corrigan, ‘But to get put somewhere where they can still be a mother and be with their children and get the help and support they need to not reoffend’ Eden House based in Fishponds is one of 55 Women’s Centres in the UK each providing services for women who want to change their lives for the better and who have the capacity Page 18
and motivation to ‘move on’ The Centres provide a one-to-one service for women with complex needs, providing intensive support to prepare them for engaging within the community. Working in association with other organisations such as the Probation Services, Police, Drug and Alcohol services, Eden House was awarded the prestigious Best Community Programme in the Women’s Category 2012. ‘I’ve been coming to Eden House for about 3 months, since then I have grown into a different person. Eden House are the only people that support me’ says Sue.’ Whilst Lynn states’ Eden House is very helpful. I get much support and good direction. It helps me to overcome personal problems. I am getting information and education which I know will gain a better quality of life for me, like becoming independent and get a job. I would be desperate and on the streets without Eden House’ The stories told by the women above remind us why change is so urgently needed.. In a climate of cuts to public funding across the board, the picture looks bleak. Yet there are opportunities for a step change. The Scottish Government has committed to transforming women’s justice in Scotland and there are promising proposals in Northern Ireland for further provision modelled on the Inspire project. The UK Government is expected to publish a strategy very soon which we hope will offer leadership to help reduce women’s prison numbers in England and Wales. Through their campaign, the Soroptimists are gathering much needed information from many sources and add a strong voice from communities across the UK to press for, and achieve, a long awaited change. Wendy Walden Soroptimist International Club of Bristol For all enquiries please call: 07806 702225 or visit www.sigbi.org or www.womensbreakout.org.uk
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Voices of female prisoners
an article written by Carlotta Allum.
Stretch is a charity started by Carlotta Allum, a social entrepreneur and ex-offender who is the author of this article. Carlotta won a digital practitioner award last year for her Story Box project. In 2006 she was awarded a fellowship from the Griffins society and LSE and completed a research paper looking at the arts in the rehabilitation of female offenders. Carlotta is a Trustee of the Charity Unlock and an RSA fellow. Stretch has been delivering projects to disadvantaged groups since 2003. It aims to re-engage marginalised groups through partnerships with museums and galleries and increase life choices through cultural activity. They work mainly with offenders and ‘Looked After’ Children. Projects are very diverse and range from visual arts, life and computer skills to drama. Stretch has always looked for innovative ways to engage participants and informal learning projects that raise confidence and soft skills as much as technical or practical skills. This latest project was funded by NIACE (National Institute for Adults Continuing Education through their Community Learning Innovation Fund. One aim of the project was to reach an offending community that it often over looked by education and who find it hard to access services while on short sentences. It piloted a programme of work with female prisoners to raise aspirations and confidence in some of the most vulnerable members of society. It delivered digital story telling workshops inspired by museum objects and the prisoner’s diverse experiences. The original target group was foreign national female prisoners, as women on short sentences are often over looked, especially foreign nationals. They also opened the project out to non-foreign nationals and one group of men. Carlotta Allum writes: Our partners were Hibiscus (A charity for foreign nationals in prisons), Peterborough Prison, Peterborough museum and Bronzefield prison. We delivered 6 intensive projects and produced over 50 films. We held a celebratory exhibition and published a guide and DVD for people working with challenging groups. We worked along side education staff in the prison and the museum. We know we made a difference to their lives, we increased their the Custodial Review
confidence and communication skills, we increased basic literacy and IT skills and we raised confidence in speaking English in the foreign nationals. The project has also lead to new partnerships with other charities interested in digital storytelling and many unexpected uses for digital stories have become apparent. The prisons are very interested in continued delivery and the education staff are impressed at the change in the prisoners. Page 20
A digital story is a film around two minutes long that is created in a workshop environment; it is the ‘story circle.’ First we work on a script, we play games to get the ideas flowing and we support each other as we share emotional memories. It is process that Stretch learnt from the Centre for Digital Story Telling in California. It is quite prescriptive and the ‘games’ played are similar to drama or therapy games. We found the dynamic of the group especially suits the
women, who benefited from the ‘safe-space’ to express themselves and who supported each other through the process. Two Stretch facilitators visit the prison with mac-books, a camera and a voice recorder. We worked with about 8 women at a time, quite intensively, over a full week or eight days. We found this intensive delivery helped with the group dynamic and built good momentum for the presentation at the end. We write and record the script as a priority, and then we take pictures to go with the script. Sometimes we work with personal objects and create ‘mini-museums.’ The process is very personal. This gives the stories their unique and authentic voice, the content is totally lead by the participant. We ask the prisoner to think about how objects have meanings and what gives a personal object value. We look at ordinary objects in the museum handling collections and think about the stories behind them. Stretch has a history of partnerships with museums so it is important for us to try and make links to the community. In Peterborough the staff from the museum visited with the objects and at the end of the project they hosted an exhibition of the work in their community gallery. Through the process the participants learn about digital media and also improve their literacy and communication skills. The most important changes are the confidence and the
capability to see a task through to the end, to try something new and possibly step out of their comfort zone. We hold a ‘red-carpet’ afternoon at the end of the project where we show the finished films on as bigger screen as we can arrange. The education staff and some senior prison staff attend and sometimes other prisoners in the department at the time. We hand out certificates and the participants receive a round of applause and a chance to enjoy other people watching their film. They find it very empowering and therapeutic seeing their story up on the big screen having distanced themselves from it a little. The project worked the best at HMP Peterborough where it was supported by the education staff and the resettlement team. Also the local city museum took a real interest in it. The Story Box Exhibition was displayed in the museum for 6 weeks and the opening was attended by the prison Director and a lot of prison staff. We have been looking to extend this project to include workshops in the museum and in the prison to try and make the links to the community sustainable. The effect we had on the women made this our most successful outcome. The films created are moving and emotional and the participants were very proud. We know this from observing them over the course and from their feedback at the end.
“Over the course of the project I saw the women transform, I know they will remember this for the rest of their lives” Education staff HMP Peterborough Feedback from the women indicated the learning and the confidence: “It helped me to think positively about my life” “ I was able to express myself and bare my soul” “It helped me believe in myself” We found it much harder than we thought to train people to deliver digital story telling projects. Uptake on the training was low from prison and Hibiscus staff, they could not continues overleaf u
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Voices of female prisoners continued
commit to the time it took to train properly (three full days). Feedback suggested we could have tried to support this by paying the training and arranging with senior management well in advance, but even them it would be
difficult. People do not really know what digital story telling IS so our marketing and advocacy could have been stronger and better. At the end of the project we had a lot
more interest in people wanting to train as facilitators. It also became clear that not everyone can be a facilitator. It is not a case of learning a certain set of skills, the leader has to be a combination of therapist, artist, IT and literacy specialist. We developed a good relationship with Sodexo justice services because we have worked in 3 of their prisons. We would like to develop a proposal for digital inclusion across the Sodexo estate for prisoners as we think the offending community miss out on digital education, and digital story telling could play a pivotal part of this proposal. One aspect of the process that had unexpected outcomes were the English language skills for the foreign nationals. One of the major challenges on the workshops at Peterborough Prison were the numbers of participants for whom English was not their first language – in the first group they were from Romania, Albania, India, Zimbabwe, Congo, Nigeria, and Thailand and on the second, Romania, Philippines, Colombia and Vietnam. Although having people of different nationalities offers a richness of experience for the group, the lack of basic literacy skills even for one or two of the women, in their
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own language, meant that we had to think very flexibly about how to engage everyone in the group while at the same time making sure that the women were gaining the skills that we were offering. And that we would be able to achieve our aims of enabling the participants to create a digital story by the end of the workshops. There were also issues around mobility of prisoners and that they often had other appointments and sometimes other courses that they had to attend while we were running the workshops, and this was frustrating at times for us and for them. We had good support from the existing staff, some of which had been teaching ESOL for over 20 years and their experience working with the women whose literacy and language was very limited, was vital to the success of the project. We also gave each participant their own work-book in which they could put ideas, writing and images, and which they could keep at the end of the project. In order to include women with limited English language we adapted one of our usual Story Circle games – the Shopping Game, from being more of a memory game (although still valid for this), to being a language game. In the group each person had to say their name, then I went to the shops and I bought Apples for example. The next person had to say, “I am L. and I bought bananas, and this is M. who bought apples” and so on. This brought ups some great unexpected words and finally included buying freedom, or peace or other more conceptual or
philosophical items as they relaxed and had fun with the words. People could help each other to remember each item, and there was a lot of laughter. We played this almost every day as it was light-hearted and helped us to get to know the women and their interests through some of the words they introduced to the “story”. In another story circle game “A Place” participants are asked to close their eyes and visualise a place they have been to or that they can imagine. We ask them simple questions like e.g. what can you see? What can you smell? How do you feel? Although often sad memories come up, it is a simple exercise and so is available to everyone. Sharing and speaking their places in the group helped us to get to know more about each other (facilitators and prison staff are expected to take part in all story circle activities). The women helped each other with translations – e.g. in one of the groups there were four Romanians with differing levels of English language and they could translate for one another. We all had at least a basic level of other languages between us and managed to help everyone to be understood. One of the women had virtually no English language and no literacy in her own language (Romanian). We noticed, however that she loved singing and dancing and although she could not speak in English, she was very happy to dance and sing for me in an empty classroom, and agreed that I could film her. Her film, although very different and not technically Page 23
“fitting the brief” showed something of herself and she was pleased, not least because she was going home the following week, but also because she had managed to achieve something good to show with the other women at the end of the workshops. Asked to say something about the workshops she said, “I enjoyed the singing and the dancing”. As we had no idea of the level or literacy or spoken English the women would have, we had to be very flexible and to be able to think on our feet. Our motivation was to make sure that nobody who signed up (even although we did not know if this was voluntary or decided by prison staff) would fail. NIACE are very interested in exploring further use of digital story telling to teach English as a foreign language and we are developing a methodology for this. Stretch is currently preparing to launch ‘Stretch Digital’ in early 2014. It will be a digital agency that visits prisons delivering story telling projects and creative media projects using this technology in a creative way to fit in with the digital inclusion agenda. We have male and female estate prisons and YOI’s agreeing to contract us to take part in the new year. If you are interested in digital story telling and digital inclusion for prisoners in and out of custody please look at our website www.stretch-charity.org for lots of examples and contact us on Carlotta@stretch-charity.org
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News from the Youth Justice Board Youth Justice Board response to the Transforming Youth Custody announcement The Government has today published its response to the consultation ‘Transforming Youth Custody: Putting education at the heart of detention’. This includes the announcement of the Government’s intention to build a secure college pathfinder in Leicestershire, opening in the spring of 2017, and a competition for education services in publicly-run young offender institutions, which will seek to significantly increase the number of hours of education provision for each young person. Youth Justice Board Chief Executive, Lin Hinnigan, said: “The Youth Justice Board (YJB) strongly supports the Secretary of State’s ambition to improve educational outcomes for young people in custody. “The secure college pathfinder, announced today is a welcome investment in the secure estate for children and young people. It offers the opportunity to commission distinct provision, designed specifically around the needs of children and young people, in terms of the physical design of facilities and through services that allow a multi-agency approach to addressing young people’s education, health and resettlement needs. “The ambitious transformation of the secure estate will, naturally, take some time to implement and the YJB remains focused on ensuring the needs of all children and young people placed into present custody provision continue to be met. We are therefore in the process of renewing contracts for secure children’s homes and secure training centres. “We are pleased that new education contracts in young offender institutions will ensure enhanced education provision, with an increase both in the number of hours and the quality of education delivered. “At the heart of the Government’s vision for the secure estate is a desire to develop a system that bridges the gap between custody and community. We believe this focus on the resettlement of young people on release from custody is essential to addressing reoffending and are delighted to see this is reflected in the response to the consultation made today.” the Custodial Review
Winners of first YJB Evidence Awards announced
scheme, known as the innovation awards, and are designed to reward effective practice in intervention design and evaluation. These are two areas which the YJB believes are critical to developing the youth justice evidence base.
A programme aimed at improving the parenting skills of young fathers and an initiative which ensures young people receive improved mental health assessments have been named the inaugural winners of the YJB Evidence Awards.
Each of the award winners received a grant of £5,000 which will be used to further their evaluation plan, and further refine their intervention design.
Oakhill Secure Training Centre’s Fatherhood Programme is designed for young men in custody, who are either fathers, expectant fathers or may want advice about relationships and fatherhood. Over the course of six, one hour sessions, the programme explores issues surrounding contraception, sex education, relationships and parenting through discussion and therapy and stresses the importance of having a positive relationship with their child and the child’s mother. The course aims to break the cycle of offending and reoffending by men, aged 14 to 17, who become fathers, by stressing the importance of being a positive role model to their child. In the view of the judges the Fatherhood Programme was, ‘a well-targeted programme based on a strong appreciation of the needs of the target population. It applied methods which were well grounded in theory’. York Youth Offending Service, received an award for their Multi-Agency Forensic Mental Health Panel. This is an innovative approach ensuring young people are properly assessed for mental health needs, diverted away from youth justice where necessary, and given the right referrals and treatment. The panel is made up of York Youth Offending Service, Child and Adult Mental Health Services (CAMHS), local authority children’s services and Adult Forensic CAMHS. In the view of the judges ‘this was a logical, wellevidenced design which sought to apply wellestablished methods in a new area of practice’. The YJB Evidence Awards replace a previous
There were 26 entries, which were evaluated by a judging panel consisting of academics, specialists covering community, custodial and Welsh sectors and the YJB’s research and effective practice leads. The two awards were presented by YJB Chief Executive Lin Hinnigan at the Annual Youth Justice Convention, held on November 26 and 27, 2013 in Birmingham. All submissions will be available on the Effective Practice Library
Conclusion of the Youth Justice Board Triennal Review Lin Hinnigan welcomes conclusion of the Triennial Review, that the YJB should continue as a non departmental public body. The review also recognises the important work which the YJB does as a central body focussed on the specific needs of young people and a distinct youth justice system. Lin Hinnigan, Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board, said: ‘I welcome the conclusion of the Triennial Review of the Youth Justice Board,that the YJB should continue as a non departmental public body. This recognises the important work which the YJB does as a central body focussed on the specific needs of young people and a distinct youth justice system. ‘The review has made recommendations about both our individual functions and governance. We will take these forward with the Ministry of Justice, as part of our continuing remit to reduce offending by identifying, disseminating and delivering effective practice within youth justice.’
Lord McNally appointed new Chair of the Youth Justice Board Lord McNally has been appointed as the new Chair of the Youth Justice Board, replacing Frances Done who steps down from her role as Chair at the end of January 2014. Welcoming the appointment, Frances Done said: ‘Lord McNally has demonstrated a very strong track record of supporting both the YJB and the interests of young people in the justice system. I know that he will provide excellent leadership to the YJB as it continues to drive improvement across youth justice, in the community and the secure estate’.
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Coughtrie International Delivers World-Class Lighting System to Grampian Prison A major supplier to the UK custodial sector, Glasgow-based Coughtrie International has recently completed another successful prison lighting project. Coughtrie International was initially identified as manufacturers of choice by the consulting engineers for the fit-out of Grampian Prison at Peterhead in 2011, and the process, which followed, exemplifies Coughtrie’s customer centric approach. Skanska PLC was awarded the contract for the entire build. Through WSP (consulting engineers for Skanska) detailed lighting design calculations where submitted for association areas, cells, toilets and core areas throughout the prison. Neal Layton, managing director of Coughtrie International, said: “Coughtrie introduced the idea of replacing the initially specified traditional lamps with LED variants and this was accepted as cost effective by all concerned leading to “Total life” cost savings regarding maintenance and energy costs. Several site visits where carried out in order to get accurate measurements for the bespoke cornice Stelcor units and to discuss build and delivery arrangements”. Within the factory at Hillington it was agreed that a “pull system” would be utilised throughout the supply to maintain availability of delivery materials. With over 5,000 fittings being delivered to site over a six month period it was vital that this system was visible to everyone involved. By adopting this flexible method of design and delivery Coughtrie were able to deliver world-class products without compromising delivery times or cost. For further information about Coughtrie International please visit www.coughtrie.com or call +44(0)141 882 3262.
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News from Nacro Measures to place victim’s centre-stage are important but criminals are ‘wired differently’ says Nacro Nacro, the crime reduction charity, welcomes the Government’s publication of a new Victims’ Code which places victims centre stage within the criminal justice system, but claims they are not enough in themselves to tackle reoffending as criminals are ‘wired differently’. Responding to the announcement on Sky News, and accepting that the announcement represents an important moment for crime victims, Graham Beech, Nacro’s Strategic Development Director, explained that although the measures are a useful tool in terms of heightening victim awareness on the part of offenders, whether they will work in reducing reoffending remains to be seen. Graham Beech said: “Offenders, particularly persistent offenders, often fail to take responsibility for their actions and that’s why they continue to reoffend – they are wired differently from the rest of us. “It is important to get offenders to take responsibility for their crime and to pay back the victims and the local community but this work is a long process which needs to take place throughout the sentence and on release into the community – it cannot just happen in court. “Restorative justice approaches are almost universally popular with victims and do work with some offenders. But for the majority, to get them to stop offending you have to do more and this involves getting them to think differently, to be more productive in the community and to pay back. “Helping with employment, education, accommodation, debt, drug and alcohol issues are all part of this process. If you do all of these things then you have the chance to change mind sets and help victims by reducing crime.”
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Education vital to stop reoffending says Nacro Following today’s proposals by the Ministry of Justice to rehabilitate young offenders through better education and training, Nacro stresses it is vital to focus on the quality of provision and the coordination of education and resettlement services in the community. Josh Coleman, Education Principal at Nacro, says: “While we welcome the government’s renewed commitment to education for young offenders, we must stress how vital it is to focus on the quality of provision received and how important it is to better coordinate services in the community once an offender is released. Too often there is a failure to link with education and training provision in local communities and courses started in custody stop when someone leaves. This has to change.” Quality education, skills and work-based opportunities play a vital role in the rehabilitation of young offenders and are a critical tool in reducing reoffending rates, however the wider resettlement needs of young offenders also need to be considered. Josh Coleman continues: “Young people in custody are some of the most difficult to work with, having complex and multiple needs. We must address all of these needs if we are going to break the cycle of crime that too many young offenders fall into and struggle to get out of. Through our own rehabilitation work in prison and communities, Nacro sees first hand the learning, behavioural and mental health needs of these young people in the classroom. A quality learning experience must innovatively address these needs in order to make education work for them. Simply repeating the mistakes of the past will not result in changed outcomes.” “In addition, we must do better at managing a young person’s transition from custody into the community. The period immediately after release is a flashpoint for young people, not only is it the point at which most young offenders are motivated to change it is also disorientating and potentially traumatic. Too often there is a failure to use the opportunity that release presents and by doing so damages any progress made whilst in custody. It is critical that changes introduced by the government address these failings and integrate quality education with the wider resettlement needs of young people. Only then will we begin to see a reduction in reoffending and victims of crime.”
Nacro makes the case for the voluntary sector and communities to play bigger role in rehabilitation Hosting fringe events at both Labour and Conservative Party conferences, Nacro claims the voluntary sector can make a real difference.
voluntary sector matters if we are going to reduce reoffending.
Nacro’s key speaker, Strategic Development Director, Graham Beech, stressed the opportunities for the voluntary sector and local communities in the rehabilitation of offenders, a key point highlighted in the recent Centre for Social Justice report, The New Probation Landscape – why the
“When you work with persistent offenders you have to get right down to the wiring. You have to get underneath how they see themselves, how they see others, how they perceive situations and how they deal with problems day to day.
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Graham Beech, said:
“You have to make them stop and you have to make them think, giving them a different perspective about the people around them and the skills they need to do things differently. “But you also have to spend as much time working in the community as you do with individuals themselves because to get sustainable results you have to work both sides of the divide, narrowing the gap between the offender and the community. Because it’s in this gap where crime takes place “Voluntary sector organisations are able to bridge the gap between offender and community, building positive relationships which not only challenge an individual to change but also open doors to achieve lasting success. “The CSJ report shows that it is time to think differently about the services charities provide in communities to reduce reoffending. From the delivery of large scale substance misuse programmes, housing people with complex needs, specialist education and skills services to volunteer mentoring, role models and employer engagement we can make a significant impact on rehabilitation services in the future.”
• Nacro is the UK’s biggest crime reduction charity. Dedicated to reducing crime and changing lives in hundreds of communities across England and Wales, it is made up of more than 1,200 staff and volunteers and runs more than 200 different projects • Nacro’s work focuses on three areas – before, while and after people are in trouble: • Education – Nacro creates new opportunities for vulnerable young people by providing them with the skills, qualifications and advice they need to get into training, college or work, thus severely reducing crime. • Offender management – working with people in prison, on post-release licences and on community sentences, challenging them to stop offending and equipping them with skills and opportunities so they can move away from crime and give something positive back to their communities. • Housing – helping offenders find somewhere to live after serving a prison sentence so they can settle back into the community and access education, training or a job. For more information visit www.nacro.org.uk/
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Police custody in Barking and Dagenham - positive and professional Police custody in Barking and Dagenham was among the best provision we have seen in the Metropolitan Police Service, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, and Dru Sharpling, HM Inspector of Constabulary, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection. The inspection was part of a national programme of joint inspections of police custody. It looked at the custody suites serving the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham within the Metropolitan Police Service, which comprised a suite at Barking with 30 cells open 24 hours a day and an overflow suite of nine cells in Dagenham that was open when required. Inspectors were pleased to find that:
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the borough commander provided good strategic leadership for the custody function
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the main suite at Barking was fairly new and cells were generally clean
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interactions with detainees were good and staff were experienced at deescalating situations
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staff managed risks appropriately
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the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) was adhered to young people and vulnerable adults were well served by an appropriate adult scheme
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arrangements for taking complaints were better than elsewhere
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health care provision was reasonable and the Barking suite had a nurse based there 24 hours a day
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custody was rarely used as a place of safety under the Mental Health Act 1983.
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there were insufficient permanent custody staff for the department to be self-sufficient and low staffing levels across all shifts meant they were not always able to provide sufficient care for detainees
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there was no mental health liaison scheme, which led to delays in getting detainees assessed. Nick Hardwick and Dru Sharpling said:
“Overall, custody provision in Barking and Dagenham was one of the best we have seen in the Metropolitan Police Service. There was good strategic oversight, but staffing levels needed attention to ensure that the needs of detainees were met and that they did not stay in custody for longer than necessary. Mental health services needed developing. This report provides a small number of recommendations to assist the force and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime to improve provision further. We expect our findings to be considered in the wider context of priorities and resourcing, and for an action plan to be provided in due course.”
Police custody in Dyfed-Powys - Greater oversight needed Dyfed-Powys police needed to strengthen its management oversight of custody and improve staff training to ensure detainees were properly cared for, said Nick Hardwick, and Dru Sharpling, HM Inspector of Constabulary, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection. The inspection was part of a national programme of joint inspections of police custody. It looked at five custody suites operating 24 hours a day: Newtown, Aberystwyth, Llanelli, Brecon and Haverfordwest, and two standby suites: Ammanford and Cardigan. Dyfed-Powys is one of the largest geographical police areas in England and Wales, covering a mix of mainly rural but also urban areas. To some extent the inspection findings and recommendations reflect the difficulties encountered in policing such an extensive area. Inspectors were concerned to find that:
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just three Inspectors oversaw custody and they were often diverted from their custody work by other responsibilities;
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staff not trained in or familiar with custody were routinely used to backfill in the custody suites because there weren’t sufficient custody sergeants and detention escort officers, which presented risks for both custody operations and detainees;
as with other police forces, there was a lack of appropriate monitoring of the use of force, both locally and London-wide issues with the fabric of the building meant that cells were often put out of use because of maintenance problems
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there was a culture of keeping detainees in custody overnight, rather than pursuing their cases, partly due to a lack of staff available at certain times
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which to make informed decisions about their use of limited resources; and
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the force needed to reduce prolonged stays in custody for those waiting to go to court and the use of police cells for people with mental health needs.
However, inspectors were pleased to find that:
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interaction and engagement between staff and detainees was, despite the difficulties, generally good;
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staff were polite and considerate and responded sensitively to individuals across a diverse spectrum; and
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risk assessments were generally proportionate and sensible. Nick Hardwick and Dru Sharpling said:
“The impact of the wide geographical area combined with the paucity of management had led to pragmatic solutions being put in place, but with insufficient consideration given to the adverse impact on detainee care. This report provides a small number of recommendations to assist the force and the Police and Crime Commissioner to improve provision further. We expect our findings to be considered in the wider context of priorities and resourcing, and for an action plan to be provided in due course.”
HMP Kennet - A safe and purposeful prison HMP Kennet was helping prisoners to acquire new skills and to prepare for release, said Nick Hardwick, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection of the resettlement prison near Liverpool. HMP Kennet is situated next to Ashworth high security hospital in converted former hospital premises. It opened in 2007 as a category C establishment but has recently changed to become a resettlement prison. It is now semiopen with a majority of category D prisoners. Arrangements to achieve this transition had worked well and inspectors found the prison was achieving reasonably good or better outcomes for prisoners across all tests for a healthy prison: safety, respect, purposeful activity and resettlement. Inspectors were pleased to find that:
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inadequate quality assurance in custody meant that poor detainee care could go unnoticed;
Kennet was a remarkably safe prison, with low levels of violence, self-harm and use of force
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a lack of meaningful data about important areas such as use of force meant the force were not in a strong position from
arrangements to address substance misuse were satisfactory and use of segregation was low
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staff-prisoner relationships were usually good and most prisoners felt respected
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learning and skills provision was well managed with sufficient activity for all
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vocational training facilities and learning were impressive
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work was carried out to commercial standards and there was a meaningful focus on preparation for work and employability
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good links had been developed that were allowing significant numbers of prisoners to use their skills in voluntary work experience on temporary release
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work to support the various resettlement pathways, such as finding prisoners accommodation on release and help with careers advice, was very good.
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adapt to becoming a resettlement prison and I am confident that they will continue to build on this progress.”
Police custody in Havering - good overall Police custody in Havering was generally positive, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, and Dru Sharpling, HM Inspector of Constabulary, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection. The inspection was part of a national programme of joint inspections of police custody. It looked at the custody suite serving the London Borough of Havering within the Metropolitan Police Service, the suite of 14 cells in Romford.
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being given to detainees. However, some detainees stayed in custody for too long and the new staffing model had resulted in any sense of a ‘team spirit’ being lost. The lack of nurses and the reliance on an overstretched FME service was of concern, and mental health services needed developing. This report provides a small number of recommendations to assist the force and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime to improve provision further. We expect our findings to be considered in the wider context of priorities and resourcing, and for an action plan to be provided in due course.”
HMP Exeter – working well and making progress
the prison’s new function meant significant staff reductions and a requirement for staff to work differently and a few staff had yet to come to terms with the challenges of the prison’s new direction
Inspectors were pleased to find that:
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the borough commander provided strategic leadership for custody, and custody was discussed at a range of meetings
HMP Exeter was well-led, with competent and caring staff, said Nick Hardwick,, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection of the local prison in Devon.
the prisoners’ accommodation was in a poor condition and required refurbishment
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staffing arrangements were reasonable
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detainees were well cared for and interactions with detainees were good, particularly with young people
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the suite was clean, with minimal graffiti
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the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) was adhered to;
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young people and vulnerable adults were well served by an appropriate adult scheme
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custody was rarely used as a place of safety under the Mental Health Act 1983.
HMP Exeter is, in many respects, a typical Victorian, inner city local prison. It holds a largely transient population of just over 500 prisoners, many received recently into custody. Much of the prison is old and difficult to maintain and there is limited space and significant overcrowding, both in terms of the availability of accommodation and access to amenities and services. Despite these challenges and the inherent risks with this type of prison, this was a broadly good report. There was a positive culture and a commitment to meeting prisoners’ needs, despite the challenges.
more work was required to ensure the prison had a fully integrated resettlement strategy consistent with its new role there were real gaps in the quality of offender management.
Nick Hardwick said: “Kennet was settling well into its new role. Prisoners were given clear opportunities to use their time purposefully and acquire skills, and to prepare for release. Key priorities should now include further improving the quality of staffprisoner relationships and developing a culture of consultation and communication with prisoners; improving environmental standards, including more proportionate physical security, and ensuring meaningful offender engagement is at the heart of the prisoners’ experience. Overall, however, the Governor and staff should be commended for running a prison that delivers good outcomes.” Michael Spurr, Chief Executive Officer of the National Offender Management Service, said:
However, inspectors were concerned to find that:
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there were good arrangements to receive and induct newly arrived prisoners;
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as with other police forces, there was a lack of appropriate monitoring of the use of force, both locally and London-wide
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most prisoners said they felt safe;
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there was a culture of keeping detainees in custody overnight, rather than pursuing their cases, partly due to a lack of available staff at certain times
the segregation unit was basic but not used excessively;
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interventions for those who misused substances were very good;
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some of the limitations of the environment were mitigated, to an extent, by excellent relationships between staff and prisoners;
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the promotion of equality was reasonably good with the needs of older and disabled prisoners well met;
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the management of learning and skills was good, teaching was good, and provision
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although risk assessments were generally reasonable, pre-release risk assessments were often perfunctory
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nurses had recently been withdrawn from the suite, which had caused concern for custody staff because of delays in getting forensic medical examiners (FMEs) to arrive at the suite
“Kennet is a safe and well-run prison that offers good outcomes for the prisoners it holds. I am pleased that the Chief Inspector has recognised the progress being made, especially in addressing substance misuse and providing work and vocational training – both of which help reduce reoffending on release and protect the public.
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“The Governor and staff are working hard to
“Overall, custody provision in Havering was good, with evidence of consideration and care
Inspectors were pleased to find that:
there was no mental health liaison scheme, which led to delays in getting detainees assessed.
Nick Hardwick and Dru Sharpling said:
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(HMP Exeter continued) Prisoners at risk of self-harm were well cared for, although formal procedures underpinning this work needed improvement, particularly as there had been three self-inflicted deaths at the prison since its last inspection in 2009. Inspectors were concerned to find that:
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drug testing results suggested that the use of illicit drugs was higher than expected;
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the quality of the accommodation was mixed;
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access to basic facilities was often poor with, for example, poor showers, inadequate kit and weak application arrangements;
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the specific needs and potential risks affecting young adult prisoners were not being addressed; time out of cell was very limited and nearly half of all prisoners were locked up during the working day there were too few work, training and education places to meet need, although for those who did get an education or training place, what was on offer was commendable; and there was a considerable backlog of individual prisoner assessments of risk which delayed sentence planning and prisoners’ ability to progress. Nick Hardwick said:
“Overall, and despite some weaknesses and gaps, Exeter is one of the better older local prisons we have seen recently. There are clear structural challenges for the prison, not least the poor environment and the lack of space, but the prison is well led, and is not overwhelmed by these challenges. There is meaningful work to tackle risks and a sense that progress is being made. This is all underpinned by a positive staff culture. Exeter is a competent and caring prison doing its best in difficult circumstances.”
“There are challenges in running the Victorian prison, but I am pleased that the Chief Inspector has acknowledged the good work that is being done there, especially in resettlement, respect and safety.” “The governor and her staff are now working to build on this and address the recommendations put forward in the report.”
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HMP Oakwood – very concerning HMP Oakwood urgently needed to improve and there were real risks if matters were allowed to drift, said Nick Hardwick, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection of the training prison near Wolverhampton. Oakwood is a new training prison that opened in April 2012 under the management of G4S. It can hold more than 1,600 prisoners. This report records the prison’s first independent inspection and it is a concerning report. The prison had many advantages in terms of its design and facilities but there was a palpable level of frustration among prisoners at their inability to get even basic issues addressed. The inexperience of staff was everywhere evident and systems to support routine services were creaky, if they existed at all. The quality of the environment and accommodation mitigated against some of the frustrations and without this risks could have been much greater. Against all four healthy prison tests: safety, respect, activity and resettlement, the outcomes inspectors observed were either insufficient or poor. Inspectors were concerned to find that:
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too many prisoners felt unsafe and indicators of levels of violence were high, although inspectors had no confidence in the quality of recorded data or the structures and arrangements to reduce violence;
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levels of self-harm were high and processes to support those in crisis were not good enough;
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there was clear evidence of illicit drug and alcohol use as well as the improper diversion of prescribed medication;
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prisoners were unable to access basic facilities, such as cleaning materials and kit;
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staff-prisoner relationships were not respectful and prisoners had little confidence in staff to act consistently or to get things done;
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many staff were passive and compliant, almost to the point of collusion, and there was clear evidence of staff failing to tackle delinquency or abusive behaviour;
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the promotion of diversity was poor and the care needs of some prisoners with disabilities were not met;
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the provision of health care was very poor and as a consequence, the health provider has received a regulatory enforcement notice from the Care Quality Commission;
Michael Spurr, Chief Executive Officer of the National Offender Management Service, said: “Exeter is a safe local prison where staff are working well with offenders.”
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well over a third of prisoners were locked up during the working day and only just over half were in activity at any one time;
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leadership in learning and skills was poor, there were not enough activity places and those that were available were not fully used;
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the delivery of resettlement and offender management was uncoordinated with very poor offender management work; and
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the prison urgently needed to decide how it was going to address the offending behaviour risks of its near 300 sex offenders.
However, inspectors were pleased to find that:
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segregation was managed reasonably and not used excessively; and
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the environment and accommodation was impressive.
Nick Hardwick said: ‘There is a lot to do before Oakwood is operating anywhere near effectively. Positively, the prison is an excellent facility. We found a management and staff team that were working hard and seemed keen to do the right thing. A new director had recently been appointed and had analysed what needed to be done accurately. But the prison urgently needed a plan to retrieve the situation and there were real risks if matters were allowed to drift. Prisoner frustration needed to be addressed. Systems that delivered basic services had to be made to work. Work to build the competence and confidence of staff was required. Health care had to be delivered effectively. The quality of management information had to improve and the prison needed to engage and communicate more effectively with prisoners. Finally, the prison needed to create structures that will ensure progress is monitored, that changes are coordinated and that improvement is sustained and embedded.’ Michael Spurr, Chief Executive Officer of the National Offender Management Service said: ‘The challenge of opening any new prison should not be underestimated. It is a complex and difficult operation - but throughout the mobilisation period Oakwood has delivered a safe, secure and ordered regime. ‘The Chief Inspector has made clear there is much more to do to achieve the high standards we expect but operating systems are now fully established and I am confident that the improvements will be achieved. We will work with G4S and continue to monitor performance at Oakwood closely over the coming months.’
British Safety Council launches 2014 International Safety Awards to celebrate excellence in occupational safety and health The Council has formally launched its 2014 International Safety Awards, which are designed to recognise an organisation’s commitment to good health and safety management during the 2013 calendar year.
The application process:
2014 will mark the 56th year of the International Safety Awards, which have made a significant contribution over that time to promoting and celebrating the benefits that well-managed and proportionate workplace health and safety bring.
Once submitted the applications are assessed by a team of independent chartered health and safety professionals who decide whether the application meets the required standard and whether it warrants a pass, merit or - for really exceptional submissions - a distinction.
The awards are open to organisations of all sizes and sectors, both members of the British Safety Council and non-members in the UK and overseas. Applications are welcome both from past winners and first time entrants; there is nothing to stop a first time entrant being successful if they can demonstrate clearly their commitment to good health and safety management in the application process.
The closing date for applications is 21 February 2014 and the results will be announced on 13 March 2014.
Last year, 470 organisations from a wide range of industry sectors and countries won an International Safety Award, including Aston Martin Lagonda, Barclays, Bolton Wanderers Football Club, Delhi International Airport, Kier Construction, Kuwait Oil Company, Notting Hill Housing Group, United Biscuits and the University of Edinburgh – to name but a few. Launching the awards, Alex Botha, British Safety Council chief executive, said: “Excellent health and safety management is good for people and good for business; it makes workplaces safer and healthier. Good health and safety is good business. “The International Safety Awards recognise those organisations from around the globe that have shown a real commitment and dedication to keeping their workplaces and workers healthy and safe. “By winning an International Safety Award, an organisation can enhance its reputation among employees, customers and shareholders, publicise its achievements in managing health and safety, and encourage other businesses around the world to strive to ensure that no one is injured or made ill at work.”
Applications are completed online, and applicants answer a series of questions about their organisation’s approach to health and safety. The online system is easy to use, and applicants can revisit the online questions as many times as they like before they decide to submit, which is done with a click of a button.
Celebrating success at the Gala Dinner The International Safety Awards Gala Dinner, held at the famous Grosvenor House Hotel in London on 25 April 2014, will celebrate the success of the winners and can be attended by anyone in the health and safety sector. Attendees will enjoy a spectacular evening that includes awards presentations, a superb dinner, fabulous entertainment and dancing. The event is a great opportunity for winners and others to reward their staff for making their workplaces safer and healthier and to network with hundreds of other like-minded people and organisations from around the world.
Recognising individuals Once again this year, within the International Safety Award scheme, the British Safety Council is running two awards which recognise exceptional individual performance: the Health and Safety Champion of the Year Award, for non-health and safety personnel over the age of 21, and the Young Health and Safety Champion of the Year Award, for nonhealth and safety personnel aged 16-21. These are optional and free to enter for all International Safety Award entrants, and provide applying organisations with the opportunity to nominate particular employees who have gone the extra mile to help ensure the health, safety and welfare of colleagues and others. The winners of both awards will receive two tickets
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to the International Safety Awards Gala Dinner, including all travel and overnight accommodation costs.
How to apply Details of how to apply for an International Safety Award can be found at: www.britsafe. org/isa Alternatively, contact the British Safety Council on (Tel) +44 (0)20 8741 1231 or (email) customer.service@britsafe.org The application fee for an International Safety Award is £230 +VAT for British Safety Council members and £340 +VAT for nonmembers.
Individual awards Last year’s Health and Safety Champion was Radoslaw Kozlowaski, a warehouse operative at Total Food Service Solutions Ltd, based in Yorkshire and Lancashire, who impressed the judges with his efforts to help management eliminate hazards such as trailing cables that posed a tripping risk. Kai Bedford, an apprentice engineer at Hertfordshire-based JSM Construction Ltd, was awarded Young Health and Safety Champion after judges applauded his innovative methods of communicating health and safety messages to colleagues, such as displaying witty slogans and catchy signage on work sites.
About the British Safety Council For more than half a century we’ve been a trusted guide to excellent health, safety and environmental management. We have educated millions of workers and made hundreds of thousands of workplaces safer for everyone. We do this by sharing information, supporting, advising, educating and campaigning. We are not-for-profit. We would be grateful if you could use British Safety Council in full rather than abbreviating to BSC when quoting our organisation. For further information about the British Safety Council go to: www. britsafe.org, or contact the British Safety Council customer service team on (Tel) +44 (0)20 8741 1231 or (email) customer.service@britsafe.org
the Custodial Review
Custodial the
Review