APPENDIX TO THE REPORT
APPENDIX
Memorandum submitted by HM Prison Service
WELSH YOUNG OFFENDERS HELD IN ENGLISH YOUNG
OFFENDER INSTITUTIONS
The tables at annex A provide a breakdown (for
both males and females) of where 15 to 17 year olds and separately
18 to 20 year olds originating from Wales are held by establishment.
The data contained in the tables dates from October 2000. There
are no longer any under 18 year old boys held at Parc. Background
notes are supplied on Ashfield Prison and young offenders institution
(Annex B) and Eastwood Park Prison, young offenders institution
and remand centre (Annex C).
Under 18s: Boys
2. Since April 2000, the Youth Justice Board
has assumed responsibilty for the commissioning and purchasing
of all juvenile secure accommodation, and the Prison Service is
contracted by the YJB to provide an agreed number of places. The
Board's remit includes advising the Government on the future provision
of juvenile secure accommodation and monitoring the performance
of all providers, including the operation of the new distinct
estate and regime standards for juveniles within the Prison Service.
In addition to the places they purchase from the Prison Service,
the YJB also purchase secure accommodation from local authorities
and manage the contracts of the three secure training centres.
The basis of the relationship between the Prison Service and the
Youth Justice Board is a strategic partnership. A partnership
agreement has been signed by the Director General of the Prison
Service and the Chairman of the Youth Justice Board and is the
over-arching statement of how the two organisations will work
together.
3. The Prison Service has invested £51
million to create a new, distinct estate for 15 to 17 year old
boys, comprising juvenile-only establishments and juvenile units
in young offender institutions. [1]For
the first time, the vast majority of under 18s will be held in
either dedicated under 18 establishments, or in dedicated under
18 living units within other establishments. The new regimes,
linked to the operation of the Detention and Training Order, are
based upon providing a "full, purposeful and active day";
rigorous assessment of each individual's health, social, educational
and vocational needs; formal and specific planning and provision
of education and training to meet these needs; regular reviews
of each individual's plans and inter-agency co-operation and support.
4. Primary responsibility for placement
of juveniles sentenced to the Detention and Training Order rests
with Youth Offending Teams who operate against the backdrop the
Youth Justice Board's priorities for the placement of young people
within the under 18 secure estate. These priorities include closeness
to home.
5. Placement of boys and 15 to 17 years
of age to a young offender institution should be made to one of
the 13 establishments that now comprise the new distinct estate
for boys. In determining which establishment were to be included
in the estate, consideration was given to the criteria of closeness
to home and to court. However, there is not dedicated Prison Service
provision in Wales, and the majority of boys from Wales who are
sentenced to a DTO are placed in Ashfield and Stoke Heath.
6. The Youth Justice Board's objective is
to have 90 per cent of all young people in secure facilities placed
within 50 miles of home by March 2004. They anticipate that this
will be achieved against the background of their commissioning
strategy over the same period which will seek to rectify current
regional imbalances between supply and demand. Additionally, the
YJB now has a placement centre with the ability to make placement
and population management decisions, in consultation with the
Prison Service, to ensure the best match between home address
and secure establishment in order to minimise distance.
7. The Prison Service understands that the
YJB have identified a site for a new secure training facility
in Wales and preliminary enquiries are underway. However, this
process is likely to be protracted and there is no certainty about
the outcome. The provision of places in Wales also forms part
of the YJB's negotiations with the Prison Service for 2001-02.
In wishing to help the YJB, I (Martin Narey) have offered the
use of Prescoed young offender establishment for under eighteens.
Situated near Usk, it has a healthy tradition in the care of young
offenders but would require a significant investment before it
could be used to house in conditions of acceptable security, under
eighteens. Its present role is the care of the minority of offenders
aged 18-20 who can be trusted in conditions of minimal security.
Under 18s: Girls
8. The position is slightly different for
young women, where, because the numbers are so small, it has not
proven to be viable to create a distinct female estate. Instead,
the Government has decided that 15 and 16 year old young women
should be held in non-Prison Service accommodation, and sentenced
17 year olds will also be removed from the prison system when
there are sufficient places outside.
18-20 Year Olds
9. The regime a young adult offender over
18 years of age receives will vary depending upon the particular
establishment in which he is held. In addition to any educational
and training activities he might enjoy, he may also have access
to other programmes, for example, the Prison Service's Welfare
to Work programme run at twelve establishments for young adult
offenders.
10. The Criminal Justice and Court Services
Act 2000 contains provision to abolish the sentence of detention
in a Young Offender Institution (DYOI). After abolition those
aged 18-20 will be sentenced as adults, with those receiving a
custodial sentence being sentenced to imprisonment. This means
that 18-20s will be able to be sent to adult prisons and have
access to a wider range of regimes. However, Ministers have made
it clear that the sentence of DYOI will not be abolished until
appropriate arrangements are in place to take account of the needs
of young adult offenders, in the form of a Prison Service Order.
When a young offender at an English young offender institution
reaches the age of 21, arrangements will normally be made to move
them to Cardiff, Parc of Swansea.
DISTANCE HELD
FROM HOME
11. Young offenders (males and females aged
between 18 and 20) originating from Wales are held on average
50 miles from home. In comparison young offenders originating
from England are held on average 54 miles from home. Young offenders
from the south west are held on average 63 miles from home.
12. Juveniles (males and females aged under
18) originating from Wales are held on average 68 miles from home
with juveniles originating from England being held on average
55 miles from home.
13. This analysis has been prepared using
the April 2001 closeness to home data extract. In order to calculate
closeness to home distances and establish a prisoner's origin
the prisoner's committal court town is used as a proxy for town
of origin. Evidence suggests that in 80 per cent of cases these
towns are the same. At the margin it is likely that some Welsh
prisoners who were committed to trial in England are not included.
Similarly some English prisoners committed for trial in Wales
will be included in the analysis.
14. At the end of February 2001 there were
446 prisoners who were aged under 21 and had been committed to
trial at a court in Wales. Of these there were 433 males and 13
females. Type of custody:
Convicted unsentenced = 42
The age breakdown for males and females is given
below:
| Age | Males
| Females |
| 15 | 15 | 0
|
| 16 | 32 | 1
|
| 17 | 62 | 2
|
| 18 | 101 | 3
|
| 19 | 110 | 4
|
| 20 | 113 | 3
|
A breakdown by type of offence and sentence length for the
329 sentenced prisoners is given in the following table:
| <1m
| 1-3m | 3-6m
| 6-12m | 12m
| 12-18m | 18m-3yrs
| 3-4yrs | 4yrs
| 4-5yrs | 5-10yrs
| 10yrs-life | Life
| Total |
| Murder |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | | 2
| 2 |
| Manslaughter |
| | | |
| | | |
| | 1 |
| | 1
|
| Other homicide and att homicide
| 1 | |
1 | | 2
| | | 1
| | 2 |
1 | |
| 8 |
| Wounding |
| 1 | 9
| 4 | 2
| 3 | 8
| 3 | 1
| 4 | 5
| 1 | 1
| 42 |
| Assaults |
| | 1 |
| | | 1
| | | |
| | | 2
|
| Other offences of VATP |
| | 2
| | 1 |
| | |
| | 1 |
1 | | 5
|
| Rape | |
| | 1
| | | |
| | | 1
| | | 2
|
| Other sexual offences |
| | 1
| | | | 1
| | | |
| | | 2
|
| Burglary |
| 2 | 7
| 5 | 8
| 17 | 29
| 7 | 3
| 1 | 1
| | | 80
|
| Robbery |
| | | 1
| 3 | 5
| 20 | 6
| 7 | 4
| 2 | |
1 | 49
|
| Taking and driving away
| | | 5
| 6 | 7
| 1 | 8
| | | |
| | | 27
|
| Other thefts |
| 3 | 6
| 5 | 5
| 2 | 5
| 2 | |
| | |
| 28 |
| Handling stolen goods |
| | 7
| | | |
| | | |
| | | 7
|
| Frauds |
| 1 | |
| | |
| | | |
| | | 1
|
| Forgery |
| | | 1
| | | |
| | | |
| | 1 |
| Drug offences |
| | 1 |
1 | 1
| | 4 |
| 1 |
| | | | 8
|
| Arson |
| | | 1
| 1 | |
| | 1
| | | |
| 3 |
| Criminal damage |
| | | 1
| 1 | 1
| 1 | |
| | |
| | 4 |
| In charge or driving drink/drugs
| 1 | |
4 | |
| | | |
| | | |
| 5 |
| Other motoring offences
| | 7 |
18 | 2
| 2 | |
3 | |
| | | |
| 32 |
| Affray |
| | | 1
| 1 | 1
| 1 | |
| | |
| | 4 |
| Violent disorder |
| | | | 1
| 1 | 1
| | | |
| | | 3
|
| Threat/disorderly behaviour
| | | | 1
| | | 1
| | | |
| | | 2
|
| Breach of court order |
| 1 | 4
| | | |
| | | |
| | | 5
|
| Other criminal offences
| | | 2
| | | 1
| 1 | |
| | |
| | 4 |
| Total | 2
| 15 | 68
| 30 | 35
| 32 | 84
| 19 | 13
| 11 | 12
| 2 | 4
| 0 |
THE IMPACT
ON FAMILIES
OF WELSH
YOUNG OFFENDERS
BEING PLACED
IN ENGLAND
15. The impact on families of Welsh young offenders being
placed in England is, by and large, very comparable to the effect
on English families when prisoners are located away from home.The
most obvious effect is the need, in some cases, for families to
travel long distances to visit. This is obviously compounded by
the additional effect of having to travel to what many Welsh families
would regard as another country, particularly those who primarily
speak Welsh, and the actual speaking of Welsh during a visit may
either be restricted (the governor can require, for security purposes,
prisoners and visitors of any nationality to speak in English,
if they are able to do so) or require the presence of an interpreter,
so that the visit can be satisfactorily monitored.
16. The Prison Service recognises the importance of maintaining
family ties, and wherever possible prisoners are located close
to their home and family. However, population pressures, appropriate
security and medical requirements and the attitudes and behaviour
of offenders all determine the likelihood of being able to arrange
desired transfers. Sometimes offenders may unavoidably be located
in an establishment that is some distance from their home area.
In addition to having an obligation to help prisoners/young offenders
to maintain their family ties, any failings in this respect impact
on the family's ability to support the prisoner through the sentence
and assist his or her effective rehabilitation. This support is
obviously particularly important for young offenders.
ASSISTANCE WITH
TRAVEL COSTS
17. The Prison Service continues to address the general
problems relating to prisoners being placed at long distances
from home with the provision of assistance with travel costs,
through the Assisted Prison Visits Unit, for families with financial
difficulties, and the arrangement of temporary transfers for prisoners
to establishments closer to home so that they can take a series
of accumulated visits. An increasing number of establishments
provide extended and all-day visits for families.
WELSH LANGUAGE
PROVISION
18. The provision for Welsh speaking young people is
aimed to match the needs identified locally in prison establishments
subject to the availability of resources. The four Prisoner Information
Books published in 1999—Male Prisoners and Young Offenders,
Women Prisoners and Female Young Offenders, Visiting and Keeping
in Touch, and Life Sentenced Prisoners —are available
translated into 21 languages including Welsh. Further language
translation, if required, can be provided by Language Line (24
hour telephone service available to all prisons) or via the Immigration
Service Directory of Interpreters distributed to all establishments.
19. Each prison establishment is required to have a local
public authority librarian working to a joint service level agreement
which should be able to meet the information, cultural and appropriate
recreational needs of prison communities. Further resources may
be provided through local education services contracts. There
are a variety of items that may be sent or brought into prison—sometimes
prior arrangement is required by friends, family, and other
visitors that can assist in maintaining links with the outside
world.
Martin Narey
Director General
26 April 2001
1
Ashfield; Brinsford; Castington; Feltham; Hollesley Bay; Huntercombe;
Lancaster Farms; Onley; Portland; Stoke Heath; Thorn Cross; Werrington;
and Wetherby. Back
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