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 dowhether that is the acquisition
of skills or treatment for offending behaviour or substance misuse
problemsneeds 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 prisonseducation,
training and treatmentis 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 receivingsuch 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 employmentshowing 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 trainingthough
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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