Select Committee on Home Affairs Written Evidence


11.  Memorandum submitted by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

  1.  Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons has the statutory duty to inspect all prisons in England and Wales (as well as all Immigration Removal Centres in the UK) to report on the conditions in prisons and the treatment of prisoners.

  2.  Under these powers, we inspect every adult prison fully every five years, with a short unannounced inspection in the middle of this period, to check on progress and the implementation of our recommendations. We inspect all juvenile establishments fully every three years, and in the intervening years we conduct shorter, education-based inspections or visits, calibrated according to need and risk assessment.

  3.  I will shortly be laying my annual report before Parliament. That will show that, during the reporting year (September 2002 to August 2003) we inspected 64 prisons, and published 80 reports. That is the evidence upon which this submission is based.

General comments

  4.  The Committee asks about the effectiveness of prison in reducing re-offending through rehabilitation, taking into account prison overcrowding. This evidence will indicate what the inspectorate has found; and inevitably some of the consequences of overcrowding will be highlighted. However, it is also important to note that prisons cannot, of themselves, provide rehabilitation. Any useful work they can do—whether that is the acquisition of skills or treatment for offending behaviour or substance misuse problems—needs to be supported by continued treatment, employment, housing and so on in the community. That is often lacking, and it is vital, particularly with overcrowded prisons that may be able to do less inside, that the support outside is increased.

  5.  There is undoubtedly a great deal of rehabilitative work taking place in prisons: education, work and offending behaviour programmes. Overall, we would want to commend the involvement of the Department for Education and Skills in prison education, and now training, through the Offenders' Learning and Skills Unit. This has provided a ring-fenced budget and special advisers and has required the appointment of Heads of Learning and Skills in each prison. The approach, as with healthcare, is for prison education and training to be equivalent to that outside prisons. It is also the approach that we take: in our inspections, education and training are inspected by the education inspectorates, Ofsted and the Adult Learning Inspectorate, according to their statutory frameworks.

  6.  The committee recognises the effect of overcrowding, and our reports confirm that. At every level of the prison system, overcrowding is having an effect on the ability of prisons to deliver rehabilitative programmes. In spite of additional resources, the movement of prisoners and the gap between the number of prisoners and the spaces available are making it very difficult to provide sufficient positive activity for enough prisoners.

  7.  A further general concern is that, in some prisons, there is a disincentive to do education or work skills training, because of wage differentials. In the recent inspection of Rye Hill, a privately managed prison, we note that prisoners doing education earned £8-9 a week whereas those in the contract workshops earned £45. In a report yet to be published we report on a public sector training prison where those doing offending behaviour programmes or part-time education were not paid, whereas those in work could earn £14 per week. In some prisons, governors have tried to even out these payments; but they are under pressure to provide contract work, that earns income for the prison, and their budgets make it very difficult to raise other wage levels commensurately.

  8.  I will not be commenting in detail on offending behaviour programmes, which we do not evaluate (that is done by the Home Office Research and Development section); but will indicate where other factors prevent the effective use of those programmes. There are, however, some general points that the Committee may wish to note:

    —  There is no specific funding, and no overall strategy, for programmes to manage alcohol consumption. Alcohol, as well as drugs, is a trigger for offending, especially for children and young people: in one young offender institution we inspected, 42% of the young people expected to have an alcohol problem on release.

    —  There are as yet no offending behaviour programmes for under-18s. This is of particular concern in relation to those young people whose offences are sexually related, and who need sex offender treatment programmes. If they are serving determinate sentences, they may be released without undergoing any treatment; if they are serving indeterminate sentences, they will not be able to begin the treatment they need to qualify for release on licence until they are in an adult establishment. Some programmes are now being developed, and this should be resourced and expedited.

Local prisons

  9.  Most short-term prisoners, as well as prisoners on remand, will spend their time in local prisons. They are the most prolific reoffenders, and yet the prisons where they are held are struggling to provide the basics of decency and safety, let alone purposeful activity and rehabilitation.

  10.  Our report on Leeds prison (published on 17 October) in many ways typifies the position. Leeds was in fact providing better treatment and conditions for prisoners than many local prisons, and we congratulated the staff for that. Nevertheless, it was able to little more than offer humane containment. We say:

    "Overcrowded, pressurised local prisons are now part of the landscape of the prison system and Leeds is no exception. At the time of the inspection it held 1,250 prisoners, 60% more than its certified normal accommodation. Almost all prisoners were two to a cell designed for one, and in one month alone 436 new prisoners had to be settled into the prison. The average length of stay of a prisoner was 12 weeks, though many long-sentenced prisoners would end up in the prison for longer, because of the difficulty of moving them to equally overcrowded training or lifer prisons which could offer the positive work they needed. These statistics are both compelling and, sadly, now usual."

    "Though all prisoners got out for brief periods, around 400 spent most of the day in their cells, because there were insufficient work and education places. This gap reflected almost exactly the discrepancy between the number of prisoners actually held at Leeds, and the number it was certified to hold."

  11.  This is the case in most of the local prisons we inspect. A few quotations from reports published last year will illustrate the point.

    "[Purposeful activity was] woefully inadequate" (Birmingham)

    "the lack of activity for most prisoners was a cause for great concern" (Wandsworth)

    "activity was not seen as a priority at the prison" (Bullingdon)

    "a prison with insufficient activity places for its population and that was regularly failing to fill those it had" (Norwich)

    "too little activity for too many prisoners . . . significant numbers were spending too long in their cells, often in their beds" (Doncaster)

    "fewer than half the prisoners were engaged in meaningful work or education" (Forest Bank)

    "95% of prisoners were at or below level one basic skills; only 18% of prisoners had access to part-time education" (Liverpool)

  12.  That is not to say that there is no useful work going on in these prisons. Some prisoners will be able to access education, to remedy their literacy or numeracy deficits, and some will be able to work (though probably without being able to acquire qualifications). But it is less than needed.

  13.  Remand prisoners may suffer more than most. They cannot be compelled to work, and opportunities may also be curtailed because of their court appearances or legal visits. Most prisons that we inspect attempt to provide remand prisoners with some opportunities for activity, but priority would tend to be given to convicted prisoners.

Training prisons

  14.  Training prisons are supposed to be the places where serious training or offending behaviour programmes can take place. Some are seeking to provide real skills, and help with release. Again, some quotations from our reports illustrate the point.

    "A policy-driven link had been established between prisoner employment, qualifications, future work and resettlement; a thorough prisoner needs analysis was available to inform local strategies" (Stocken)

    "one of the few training prisons that has excellent training workshops, geared specifically to prisoners' employability" (Usk)

    "every prisoner had appropriate accommodation on discharge; 25% had been helped into rehabilitation units and 25% into employment" (Blundeston)

    "a good range of employment and training opportunities was available; work allocation was linked into resettlement initiatives" (Lindholme)

  15.  However, there are also prisons that we describe as "training prisons in name only": which have insufficient work, and where the work that there is is of insufficient quality, with few opportunities to gain recognised qualifications and work skills. Of the 19 training prisons on which we published reports last year, only five had what we considered to be sufficient work and activity for all prisoners; and in some prisons a high percentage of these were cleaners or orderlies. At some prisons, unemployed prisoners spent far too much time in their cells: all but four hours in Dartmoor and High Point, most of the time at Swaleside.

  16.  The core work of training prisons—education, training and treatment—is also compromised by population pressure. Many are receiving prisoners earlier in sentence and for short periods: at one training prison, the average length of stay per prisoner was only six weeks. Others have specialist programmes that need selected prisoners, but are receiving those who need the bed-space, rather than those suitable for the programmes. The appointment of Heads of Learning and Skills may be able to assist prisons to develop a more flexible and creative approach to skills training for the more short-term and less stable populations they are now receiving—such as the use of modular courses, and the use of every opportunity for accreditation. But it is undoubtedly more difficult to do so.

Women's prisons

  17.  Women's prisons suffer the same problems as men's: with local prisons finding it very difficult to provide sufficient activity, and training prisons receiving women earlier in sentence and for shorter periods.

  18.  Many women's prisons have had to change their role recently, because of population pressure. Those prisons that managed to remain stable were able to make better provision. We commended Send as a "fundamentally healthy prison, where both staff and women prisoners felt safe and respected". Nearly all the women were engaged in activity, 30 of them working in the community. However, Askham Grange's education and resettlement had noticeably declined since the last inspection, due to budget cuts. Again, these prisons may need to change their work opportunities to reflect their changed population: Drake Hall, a semi-open prison, was receiving fewer women who were considered eligible to work outside the prison, and did not have enough work and education spaces inside.

  19.  There is a particular issue about the number of foreign nationals in women's prisons, which has now reached one in four prisoners. These women have been moved around the prison estate, which has made it difficult to make proper provision. Some prisons are providing appropriate programmes, such as English as a Second Language courses.

Young adults

  20.  The Inspectorate is very concerned about the relative impoverishment of regimes and activities available for young adults, aged 18-21, who are among the most prolific offenders, with reconviction rates of around 76% within two years. Some additional resources are being levered in via European and regional programmes, but in nearly all the establishments we have inspected we have found that there is insufficient rehabilitative work, particularly in comparison to the greater opportunities now available for the under-18s, with whom many of them are held.

  21.  Some prison managers are trying to use resources flexibly, with part-time education. This cannot, however, disguise the fact that both the quantity and quality of opportunity for young adults is deficient. For example, only 42% of young prisoners at Onley were engaged in accredited training or education, while a large number were engaged in menial work on the wings. At any one time, 30% of prisoners in Glen Parva and 50% at Aylesbury could be in their cells. Those not in employment at Aylesbury could be locked in their cells for all but one and a half hours a day, if association was cancelled, which it often was. However, for a few prisoners, Aylesbury also provided extremely high quality training in motor mechanics, in partnership with Toyota, which led directly to employment—showing what can be done.

Juveniles

  22.  The developments in the juvenile prison estate have been considerable, though resources are still much less than those for under-18s held in other custodial environments (Secure Training Centres and Local Authority Secure Units).

  23.  This year, an additional £40 million in funding has been provided for education and training—though the cost per child, at £60 per week, is still significantly less than in other secure settings. Within establishments, learning support assistants, special educational needs co-ordinators and heads of learning and skills have been appointed; though the recruitment and retention of appropriately qualified teachers remains a problem: in one establishment 44% of the teaching was unsatisfactory or poor. Centrally, the Offenders' Learning and Skills Unit at the DfES has appointed three specialist advisers.

  24.  However, education contracts are still in many cases out of kilter with the increasingly demanding requirements of the Youth Justice Board. No juvenile establishment has yet succeeded in meeting the new YJB target of 30 hours per week education and training; though the majority report that they are now able to reach the previous target of 15 hours. Nevertheless, we would treat these figures with some scepticism: in most establishments that we inspect, there is significant slippage, with late arrivals to and early departures from class. Levels of accreditation remain low, partly because of short stays and poor attendance. Some establishments also have shortages of space: one establishment had space for only 20% of students at any one time.

  25.  Nevertheless, the position in relation to training plans and education and training is improving. We carry out annual surveys for the YJB of all juvenile establishments, and this year they show that in many establishments 80% of trainees said that they had training plans, and were involved in education and training. It is noticeable, though, that the most consistently high rates of participation are in the smallest units: the specialist Carlford and Oswald units at Warren Hill and Castington, and the small unit at Thorn Cross: whether this is in access to association, or to education and training.

Healthcare and substance use

  26.  The incidence of mental disorder among prisoners continues to be high. However, we have seen some modest improvements in their care, and more are promised. As the Department of Health moves towards taking full responsibility for healthcare in prisons, it is becoming slightly easier to move the acutely mentally ill to secure NHS facilities: though it still regularly takes up to three months, during which time they can deteriorate seriously.

  27.  For those with less acute illnesses, many prisons now have mental health in-reach teams with trained mental health nurses. They can support both patients and staff. Another welcome development in some prisons is the reduction in in-patient beds (where patients normally have a very limited regime) and the extension of day-care facilities, where those living on the wings can be supported during the day. These developments are still patchy and fragile, but they are moves in the right direction.

  28.  Mental disorder is often associated with substance use, and drug treatment and throughcare programmes are an essential part of rehabilitation. This is provided through CARATs teams. Many are under-staffed and have difficulty with staff recruitment and retention, partly because long-term funding is not secure. A major problem, which needs addressing, is that the targets set for CARATs teams are mainly to carry out assessments, not provide treatment or resettlement. Those targets need to be amended, particularly in training prisons, if this work is to be effective.

Anne Owers CBE

October 2003



 
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