Written evidence from HM Chief Inspector
of Prisons and the Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice Northern
Ireland
The Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice (CJl)
has a duty under section 46 of the Justice (Northern Ireland)
Act 2002 to inspect the Northern Ireland Prison Service. CJl may
however delegate that responsibility to HM Inspectorate of Prisons.
Recognising the expertise and the knowledge
of Northern Ireland prisons which resides in HMI Prisons, CJI
relies heavily on HMIP's support. Starting with the inspection
of Magilligan Prison in September 2004, inspections of the Northern
Ireland prisons have been led by HMIP with the participation of
Inspectors from CJI, and the resulting reports have been jointly
signed by both Chief Inspectors.
The reports that have been issued to date, with
date of publication, are:
Magilligan Prison
| March 2005 and December 2006
|
Women Prisoners (Ash House)
| May 2005
|
Hydebank Wood YOC
| October 2005
|
Maghaberry Prison
| May 2006
|
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The inspections have been based upon HMI Prisons' standard
methodology, using the criteria known as "Expectations".
This enables the Northern Ireland prisons to be benchmarked against
similar establishments in England and Wales, though there are
some difficulties in making direct comparisons for reasons set
out below.
The remit of CJl is wider than that of HMIP. CJl's duty is
to inspect the Northern Ireland Prison Service in its totality,
whereas HMIP focuses on the treatment of prisoners and the conditions
in prisons. CJI therefore has a broader interest in the management
of the Prison Service and the pay, conditions and training of
its staff, which it has sought to reflect in the joint reports
(for example, Chapter 9 of the 2004 Magilligan report).
CJI is also interested in how the Prison Service relates
to other parts of the Criminal Justice System. It has touched
on the work of the Prison Service in its thematic reports on the
Management of Sex Offenders (March 2005 and December 2006) and
on Target Setting and Performance Management (January 2006). CJI
is currently completing a review of the Northern Ireland Resettlement
Strategy, covering the contribution of the Probation Board as
well as that of the Prison Service.
THE PRISON
ESTATE IN
NORTHERN IRELAND
Inspection reports have pointed up the deficiencies of the
prison estate in Northern Ireland. There are three underlying
problems.
The first is that a small prison estate has to accommodate
all kinds of prisoners: men, women and children, serving sentences
of a few days to life. The choice is essentially between a very
small number of multi-functional establishments and a larger number
of smaller specialised units. Inspection reports have pointed
too the problems of multi-functionalism in both Hydebank VVood
(with women and young men) and Maghaberry (with paramilitary and
life sentenced prisoners as well as low security, short-term and
remand prisoners); and to the problems caused by the geographical
location of Magilligan. The limited number of establishments results
in many prisoners being held in unnecessarily secure environments,
which is expensive and impedes resettlement At Maghaberry, all
prisoners, whatever their security categorisation, are held in
maximum security conditions with little opportunity for progression.
Secondly, the prison population in Northern Ireland, as in
the rest of the UK, is growing and that growth looks set to continue.
This has led to overcrowding at Maghaberry, where many cells are
being shared though they are too small for that purpose.
Thirdly, some of the prison accommodation is unsatisfactory.
That is particularly the case at Magilligan, where the H blocks
have been found to be "unacceptable", both in terms
of safety and decency. Some of the Maghaberry units are also unsatisfactory,
particularly for long-term prisoners. The accommodation and arrangements
for women at Hydebank Wood remain both unsuitable and restrictive.
Kit Chivers said in his speech to the annual CJI Stakeholder
Conference on 17 January 2007:
"However much we may try to hold down the prison population,
we shall need significant new investment in custody facilities,
not replacing like for like, but taking the opportunity to create
a more diverse range of facilities to deal with women prisoners,
low risk offenders and mentally disordered offenders, and we need
well-run hostels to help manage offenders who are returned to
the community".
INSPECTION OF
EDUCATION, TRAINING
AND HEALTH
CARE
Other, non criminal justice inspectorates increasingly have
a role in the work that takes place in prisons but which is provided
and funded from outside the criminal justice system. It is important
that inspection arrangements reflect this, while ensuring that
the burden on inspected bodies is kept to a minimum, and that
an inspection report can provide a holistic view of the operation
of the whole prison. For that reason, arrangements have been negotiated
with the other relevant inspectorates to work alongside them.
Education and training in Northern Ireland prisons used to
be inspected by the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI, which from
April 1 2007 merged into OFSTED), working as part of the HMI Prisons
team. ALI's function in Northern Ireland has now passed to the
Northern Ireland Education and Training Inspectorate, which will
likewise work with the HMIP/CJI team on inspections.
Healthcare in Northern Ireland prisons became the responsibility
of the NHS from April 2007. This is likely to have a significant
effect on the way health care is delivered. As in England and
Wales, HMIP and CJI are developing a Memorandum of Understanding
with the Regulation and Quality 'Improvement Authority; which
inspects health and social services in Northern Ireland, so that
HMIP will continue to inspect the delivery of healthcare in prisons,
while the RQIA inspects commissioning.
Education and training
For understandable historical reasons, the provision of purposeful
activity, and in particular education and skills training, was
not a priority in Northern Ireland prisons when the current inspection
regime began. At all the prisons inspected, and in spite of some
recent improvements, we found that both the quantity and quality
of education and training were inadequate to meet the needs of
prisoners or to provide the employability skills they would need
in order to reduce the likelihood of reoffending. This was compounded
by short working days and delays in getting prisoners to available
work and education; which themselves reflect outdated priorities
and procedures.
Since then, the NIPS has reviewed its education and training
provision, and related policies, and is working to improve things
further.
Health
Inspections have found improvements in healthcare, particularly
in relation to primary care services, but have also raised questions
in relation to management, needs assessment, skills mix, the role
of doctors and medicines administration. It is anticipated that
these will be dealt with through the commissioning of services
by the NHS as from this year. One continuing problem is mental
health provision: a full needs analysis is required to inform
the development of services, and the partnership arrangements
with outside providers.
RESETTLEMENT
The NIPS was an early convert to the need to focus on resettlement,
with an innovative scheme being developed at Magilligan to plan
prisoners' progress through sentence. In addition, family ties
have a much greater priority than in prisons in England and Wales,
with some extremely effective family liaison work carried out
in partnership with non-governmental organisations. Equally, there
is some extremely good "through the gate" drugs work,
again involving the voluntary sector.
Unfortunately, progress on resettlement as a whole has been
inhibited by the continuing industrial relations issues and the
relative lack of involvement of residential staff. Rehabilitation
work is not yet sufficiently embedded into prison life as a whole.
CJI will be reporting the results of a thematic review of the
resettlement strategy very shortly.
MANAGEMENT OF
THE PRISON
SERVICE
One important issue facing the Northern Ireland Prison Service
is the need to change its culture to adapt to the changed situation
and the new demands on it. The Prison Service was, from the creation
of the Province, essentially part of the security apparatus of
the state (it is significant that it still reports to the Security
Minister, not the Criminal Justice Minister). With that went a
Protestant. bias among the personnel akin to that of the police
and a perception of partisanship, which led many prison officers
to be targeted, and indeed many to be killed, during the Troubles.
It is understandable that, as a result, the Service is a conservative
organisation, with more of an emphasis on security than on working
with prisoners to reduce their re-offending.
There has been no culture among prison service staff of proactive
engagement with prisoners or acting as role models or mentors
for offenders. While relationships often appear relaxed on the
surface too many prison officers act simply as gaolers rather
than actively supporting prisoners. This results in poor dynamic
security (which has to be based on good and effective relationships)
and leads to a further reliance on over-restrictive physical security.
The Prison Service has not been subject to a reform like
that of the PSI following the Patten Commission. Progress towards
achieving a better Protestant balance in the workforce has been
hampered by the fact that there has been very little recruitment
in recent years, though the recruitment of Night Support Officers
provided an opportunity. It will be important that any relocation
of the prison estate (eg following possible closure of Magilligan
Prison, or removal of the women prisoners to a dedicated establishment)
should aim at affording equal access to all sections of the community,
both for employment and for families visiting the prisons and
opportunities for resettlement. The planned joint Training College
for the PSNI and the Fire and Rescue Service at Cookstown is an
example of good practice in this respect.
COST PER
PRISONER PLACE
Although there has been some success in containing the cost
recently, on any comparison the Northern Ireland prison service
is extremely costly. The latest figure for the average cost per
prisoner place is £86,290, which is roughly double the cost
of the most expensive maximum security establishment in England
and Wales. The comparisons are not simple, because the two Prison
Services prepare their accounts in different ways and fewer costs
are attributed to establishments in the England and Wales figures,
but the broad conclusion is valid. The cost per prisoner place
at Magilligan, which approximates to a Category C prison by England
and Wales standards, is possibly three times what it might be
in a comparable establishment.
The reasons for this are well known. Prison officers in Northern
Ireland are paid at a premium rate, and the prisons are staffed
at a high ratio of officers to prisoners. Most staff are prison
officers, and the use of auxiliary grades is limited by comparison
with England and Wales. The position is as it is for historical
reasons, and management and staff alike understand that the present
regime is not sustainable in the long run. If there is a restructuring
of the prison estate it would be important to seize the opportunity
to introduce more efficient ways of working, particularly in those
parts of the new estate that are relatively low security.
SEPARATION
Undoubtedly one of the major impacts on the Northern Ireland
prison system has been the decision to allow paramilitary prisoners
to opt for separation from other prisoners. This has led to significant
resources and managerial time being devoted to providing extremely
restrictive levels of security to manage a relatively small group
of prisoners (about 80 or so). Despite the resources devoted to
them these prisoners have almost none of the activities and interventions
required in order to address their offending. Separation has reduced
the staffing and support available for the great majority of prisoners,
not only in Maghaberry but in other prisons, and set back plans
to improve resettlement, offending behaviour work and educational
provision. It has also reinforced a security-led and defensive
culture among staff, at a time when it was beginning to change.
Kit Chivers
Chief Inspector, Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland
and
Anne Owers
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
April 2007
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