House of Commons - Prisons in Wales and the treatment of Welsh offenders

Prisons in Wales and the treatment of Welsh offenders - Welsh Affairs Contents

2 Prisons in Wales

8. The four Welsh prisons—Cardiff, Swansea, Usk/Prescoed and Parc in Bridgend—are all overcrowded, and to a greater extent than the average across England and Wales. As of January 2015, the average overcrowding of prisons in the UK was 111%; the equivalent figure across the Welsh prison estate was 137%.

Table 1: Population of Welsh prisons, January 2015

Prison Operated by Year opened Capacity¹ Prisoners in January 2015 Percentage of capacity used

Cardiff HMPS 1832 539 810 150%

Parc (Bridgend) G4S 1997 1,170 1,452 124%

Swansea HMPS 1861 242 422 174%

Usk/Prescoed HMPS 1844, 1939 378 496 131%

Total - - 2,329 3,180 137%

UK - - 75,374 83,680 111%

Source: Ministry of Justice, Population bulletin: monthly January 2015 [Accessed 27 February 2015]

¹ Capacity is given as 'certified normal accommodation' (CNA), the Prison Service's the Prison Service's own measure of accommodation. CNA represents the "good, decent standard of accommodation that the Service aspires to provide all prisoners."

Performance of Welsh prisons

9. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons (HMI Prisons) inspects adult male prisons at least once every five years. Almost all inspections are unannounced, and check for progress made against previous recommendations. Prisons are assessed against four 'healthy prison' tests: safety, respect, purposeful activity and resettlement. Each criterion is scored on a scale from 'Good' (no evidence that outcomes for prisoners are adversely affected in any significant areas), through to 'Reasonably good' (adverse outcomes in only a small number of areas), 'Not sufficiently good' (adverse effects in many areas, or areas of great importance) and finally 'Poor' (outcomes are seriously affected by current practice).

10. Despite the high level of overcrowding in Welsh prisons, we were pleased to hear from Nick Hardwick, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, that Welsh prisons were performing better than English prisons.[12] Each of the prisons in Wales was last inspected on the following occasions:

Table 2: HMI Prisons inspections of prisons in Wales

Prison
Date of inspection
Inspection published
Announced/not announced
Safety Respect Purposeful activity Resettlement

Cardiff
18-22 March 2013
16 July 2013
Announced
Reasonably good Reasonably good Reasonably good Not sufficiently good

Parc (Bridgend)
9-19 July 2013
21 January 2014
Unannounced
Good Reasonably good Reasonably good Good

Swansea
6-10 October 2014
25 February 2015
Unannounced
Reasonably good Not sufficiently good Not sufficiently good Reasonably good

Usk
22 April-3 May 2013
13 August 2013
Unannounced
Good Reasonably good Good Reasonably good

Prescoed
22 April-3 May 2013
13 August 2013
Unannounced
Good Good Good Good

Source: HMI Prisons website

11. HMP Swansea had previously been inspected in December 2012,[13] a short unannounced follow-up to an announced inspection in February 2010.[14] That follow-up found that "the prison had made sufficient progress in implementing our recommendations on safety and resettlement, but that insufficient progress had been made in the areas of respect and purposeful activity".[15] The most recent inspection found that it had deteriorated, but was redeemed to a certain extent by good relationships between staff and prisoners.[16] Sarah Payne, Director of NOMS in Wales, told us that Cardiff and Swansea, both previously rated as 'Not Sufficiently Good' in relation to resettlement, had since worked hard to increase the activity that prepared prisoners for release.[17] The introduction of a 'through-the-gate' service provided by Working Links, the company that will now have responsibility for rehabilitation in Wales, is specifically designed to improve resettlement outcomes.

CONSEQUENCES OF OVERCROWDING

12. Nick Hardwick told us that the consequences of overcrowding went beyond cramped living accommodation, and that the real problem lay in a shortage of activity places and resettlement processes for the prison population.[18] Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, agreed, adding that staffing ratios and rising levels of self-harm were also issues of concern.[19]

13. Witnesses expressed specific concerns about the effect of overcrowding on the availability of healthcare and educational opportunities.[20] The Minister suggested that a new prison would go some of the way to reduce overcrowding.[21] However, we were also told that any temporary increases in new capacity will be offset by the closure of smaller, older facilities elsewhere across the prison estate in Wales and England.[22]

AGE AND SIZE OF EXISTING PRISONS

14. We were told throughout our inquiry that smaller prisons were easier to run.[23] Several of those people who submitted written evidence were critical of the Government's plans for the new prison at Wrexham, partly on grounds of its size.[24] However, we were also told that larger prisons were not necessarily poorer performers: indeed, it was put to us that the size of larger establishments enabled a greater range of activities and interventions.[25] Nick Hardwick explicitly rejected the notion that "big equals bad and small equals good",[26] and gave Parc as an example of a well-performing large prison, attributing much of its success to the fact that individual residential managers knew their parts of the prison well.[27] The importance of senior management visibility arose later in our evidence.[28]

15. Kevin Lockyer, a former prison governor, argued that the age of a prison was as important as its size, and had advocated a strategy of "new for old" in a 2013 report for Policy Exchange entitled Future Prisons: A radical plan to reform the prison estate.[29] He recommended the closing of small prisons and replacing them with fewer (but crucially, much larger) 'modular' prisons, which could accommodate a range of prisoners on one site with a shared perimeter. He suggested that the added difficulties of running large prisons was a price worth paying for the outcomes that could be achieved.[30] He looked to Pentonville as an example of "a Victorian penal establishment, which the Prison Service has tried heroically to drag into the 21st century to deliver 21st-century outcomes, but it struggles because of its design".[31] Pentonville's 'certified normal accommodation' in January 2015 was 915, more than three and a half times that of Swansea.

16. The overcrowding of Welsh prisons poses a serious barrier to the effective rehabilitation of offenders. Given the limitations of Swansea's siting and size, there is little wonder it is struggling to match the performance of less overcrowded prisons. At its most basic level, lack of prison capacity can be dealt with by increasing supply or reducing demand. It is unlikely that the former will be sufficient, no matter how fast new prisons are constructed. In any event, the new North Wales Prison is not expected to open until 2017.

17. We recommend that the Government takes urgent action to reduce the severe overcrowding of prisons in Wales, particularly HMP Cardiff and HMP Swansea.

North Wales Prison

18. In its 2007 Report, our predecessor committee recommended the development of:

19. Following the withdrawal of plans for the Dynamex site at Caernarfon, the Government announced on 27 June 2013 that it would pursue the construction of a new large prison in north Wales in an attempt to accelerate its policy of new-for-old in the prison estate. In doing so, it promised significant economic benefits for the region, citing the construction of HMP Oakwood as a recent precedent.[33] The former Firestone factory at Wrexham was announced as the Government's preferred site for a new prison in September 2013.[34]

FOR WALES OR IN WALES?

20. Several witnesses challenged the assumption that the new prison was being designed with a predominantly Welsh population in mind. Robert Jones told us that "figures from December last year showed that about 857 people from across the six local authorities in north Wales were in prison",[35] not all of whom would be suitable to be held at a category C prison of adult males. The Minister's evidence supported this rough calculation. He told us that there were "around 900 prisoners from north Wales who are not in prison in north Wales at the moment" and that he hoped that at least 700 of those prisoners could be accommodated at Wrexham.[36] Kevin Lockyer, whilst freely admitting that in his previous incarnation as a civil servant a large prison in North Wales would have been useful, told us that there was no case for such a large prison solely for Welsh prisoners.[37]

21. Councillor Hugh Jones from Wrexham Council acknowledged that whilst Wrexham would serve a useful purpose in helping Welsh prisoners serve their sentence closer to home, even if only for the last three months as envisaged under the plans for transformed rehabilitation, Wrexham would play an important role in being a regional prison serving the north-west of England.[38]

22. The new prison at Wrexham will play an important role in allowing more Welsh prisoners to serve part or all of their sentence in Wales. Not all prisoners at Wrexham will be from north Wales; the prison has a role to play in reducing the serious overcrowding at some of the existing prisons in south Wales. However, it will also host a significant number—perhaps even a majority—of prisoners from England. Serious consideration will need to be given to how the needs of English prisoners will be met in a prison designed to be distinctively Welsh.

DESIGN AND OPERATION

23. The Government intends for the new prison at Wrexham to have a capacity of 2,106, comprising three 702-bed units. Witnesses expressed concern that this was in effect three medium-sized to large prisons,[39] and that it would be a challenge to have a sufficient degree of senior management visibility. Kevin Lockyer suggested that the way to mitigate that risk would be to "create smaller units, with a recognisable head of unit whom prisoners have a good chance of seeing".[40]

24. When we put these concerns to the Minister, he told us that each of the 702-strong house blocks would be subdivided into 'communities' of 88, which he told us was close to the "the optimum number of prisoners in terms of safety, decency, security, good sight lines and so on".[41] Sarah Payne spoke of the need for strong leadership within the living units of 88,[42] with Wrexham comprising three K-shaped units, each with four spurs and two living units on each spur.[43] Lee Robinson, Wrexham Council's Strategic and Performance Director, assured us that the Ministry of Justice had given every impression of having learned the lessons of prison design and factored that into its plans for Wrexham.[44]

25. We were pleased to hear the Minister's assurance that the new prison at Wrexham would be divided into 'communities' of 88. It remains to be seen, however, just how real those communities will be in practice. If they are to be meaningful, a distinctive identity and some stability in population will be required.

26. We recommend that each of the three blocks at Wrexham has its own identity and be run by a head of unit invested with significant autonomy and visibility. Each head of unit should exercise most of the day-to-day responsibility for the unit and, to all intents and purposes, act as de facto Governor in order to mitigate the risk of Wrexham becoming simply a large, one-size-fits-all prison comprising three house blocks.

27. We were told by Kevin Lockyer that two crucial elements in opening a new prison were the speed of opening and mix of staff:

28. We were told in evidence and on our visit that Oakwood suffered from having "overwhelmingly" new staff who lacked the experience necessary to work with authority.[46] The employment opportunities for local people have been emphasised throughout the planning process, but the Minister acknowledged that Wrexham would need a mix of experienced and new prison officers,[47] some of whom will need to be fluent Welsh speakers, if the aspirations for the new prison are to be fully realised. However, Robert Jones noted that only 12% of people in Wrexham speak Welsh, which was below the national average of 19% according to the 2011 census. He suggested that it might be necessary to go further afield—if only further into north-west Wales in order to recruit relatively local Welsh-speaking staff.[48] At present, it is envisaged that Wrexham will open slowly, opening initially in February 2017 and becoming fully operational nine months later in September 2017.

29. The speed at which Wrexham becomes fully operational should be governed by the progress it makes, not by a timetable decided years in advance. We urge the Government to learn the clear lessons from Oakwood, and open the new prison slowly and steadily, even if it means not realising all the benefits of the additional capacity straight away.

12 Q1 Back

13 HMI Prisons, Report on an unannounced short follow-up inspection of HMP Swansea, 17-19 December 2012 Back

14 HMI Prisons, Report on an announced inspection of HMP Swansea, 8-12 February 2010 Back

15 Report on an unannounced short follow-up inspection of HMP Swansea, Summary Back

16 Q1 Back

17 Q194 Back

18 Q4 Back

19 Q75 Back

20 Qq 78-9 Back

21 Q203 Back

22 HMP Haverigg was identified as one such candidate, see Q139; See also North Wales Prison, HCWS297 Back

23 Q5; Q110 Back