APPENDIX 6
Further supplementary note by HM Prison
Service
REPLY BY THE PRISON SERVICE TO A LETTER FROM
THE CLERK OF THE COMMITTEE
I am responding to your letter of 1 November.
CHECK OF
KEY REGISTER
We are agreed that we are talking about the
gate book. I am afraid I cannot confirm whether irregularities
were found—Mr Shipton is on holiday in India. However, given
the detailed nature of the interview replies he gave to the investigation
into the conduct of the search, I think it is reasonable to conclude
that he would have mentioned any irregularities, Nor, I am afraid,
can we wholly guarantee your assumption that this means that the
keys had all been handed in by staff as they left the prison.
If the system was operating correctly, then that should have been
the case. We know of one member of staff who subsequently admitted
to having taken his keys home.
HEALTHCARE CENTRE
The balance of our evidence is that the Health
Centre was not opened to check a prisoner's medical records. You
point to section 7.4 of the report of the inquiry into the conduct
of the search. That inquiry was based on the attached record of
drug tests[5],
where you will see that there was an apparently positive reading
of a prisoner for morphine. Although it would have been usual
practice for a prisoner's medical records to be checked, which
led the inquiry team to, quite naturally, ask whether this had
been done, we have now established with the Area Drugs Co-ordinator
that he deliberately adopted a low key approach, and accepted
the prisoner's word that he was taking Sudafed, which is known
to give a false positive for morphine. The inquiry team were not
in possession of this information when they said: "It is
not clear where the evidence of the prescribed medication was
obtained, as the Healthcare Advisor was not asked for advice."
ESCAPES/ABSCONDS
Figures for Blantyre House from 1992 onwards
are:
|
| | Escapes
| Absconds |
|
| 1992 | 3 |
12 |
| 1993 | 0 |
4 |
| 1994 | 2 |
7 |
| 1995 | 0 |
3 |
| 1996 | 1 |
7 |
| 1997 | 0 |
2 |
| 1998 | 0 |
1 |
| 1999 | 0 |
0 |
| 2000 | 1 |
7 |
|
TEMPORARY RELEASES
You also asked for figures relating to temporary releases
since May. There have been 8,625, which would give a projected
indicative figure of 17,250 for 2000-01.
RECONVICTION RATES
We have been able to update the figures for another year,
which does show 1995 as a "blip" year.
|
| | 1996
|
|
| Reconviction rate (Blantyre House) | 7%
|
| Sample size (Blantyre House) | 27
|
| Reconviction rate (closed Cat C's) | 55%
|
| Sample size (closed Cat C's) | 7,743
|
| Reconviction rate (Prison Service) | 57%
|
| Sample size (Prison Service) | 31,491
|
|
KEY PERFORMANCE
INDICATORS
As I tried to explain over the telephone, comparisons between
Blantyre House's performance against KPIs and Prison Service KPIs
as a whole is virtually meaningless. Bespoke targets are agreed
for each prison on each indicator to reflect the kind of prison,
the nature of its population and other factors. I attach a chart
with figures for the current year to end September 2000 which
sets Blantyre House's performance against three other similar
prisons, as well as overall performance, which is a more meaningful
comparison. I will follow this, on Monday, with a chart for 1999-2000.
I am afraid that we cannot provide staff sickness reflected in
percentages, since we express this measure as an average number
of working days lost.
KPT ON TEMPORARY
LICENCE FAILURES
Although prisons have measured failures of release on temporary
licence, this has only been a Key Performance Target since April
2000. Unlike Key Performance Indicators, there is no overall Prison
Service target (temporary release probably applies in only about
50 per cent of prisons).
Performance is measured as a whole, but only in establishments
that operate release on temporary licence. It is usual to measure
this as a failure rate percentage, rather than as successful releases.
|
| Blantyre House 2000-01 (to September): |
0.1% |
| Blantyre House 1999-2000: | 0.0%
|
| Kirklevington 2000-01 (to September): | 0.0%
|
| Kirklevington 1999-2000: | 0.3%
|
| Latchmere House 2000-01 (to September): |
0.0% |
| Latchmere House 1999-2000: | 0.0%
|
| Send 2000-01 (to September): | 0.1%
|
| Send 1999-2000: | 0.1%
|
| Prisons operating ROTL 2000-01 (to September):
| 0.1% |
| Prisons operating ROTL 1999-2000: | 0.2%
|
|
Clare Checksfield
3 November 2000
5
Not printed. Back
| 
