Prisons - in brief (9)
01 January 2006
UK: Prisoner "contracts". Prisoners are to be asked to sign contracts on entering jail, pledging to go straight on release, in return for help with jobs, accommodation, healthcare and benefits. The "contract" will be one of the proposals arising from the merger of the Prison and Probation service into the National Offender Management Service, wherein the offender management service will be opened up to tender by the private and voluntary sectors. Charles Clarke, Home Secretary, has stated that he wants to redefine the relationship between the prisoner and the state through the introduction of a "contract between the criminal and the state where each individual in prison, on remand or on probation, is required to commit to a non-criminal future, to no future re-offending." It appears that the Home Secretary does not recognise that remand prisoners have not been found guilty of any offence, and Clarke seems to be proposing a regime of permanent punishment, whereby the right to housing, benefits and healthcare becomes entirely conditional on future behaviour for those with criminal convictions. This is indeed a redefinition of the relationship between prisoners and the state, in that it reduces the prisoner to a sub-species with only provisional access to rights which are otherwise universal.
Observer 5.2.06
UK: Unacceptable pain inflicted on children in jail. Lord Carlisle's independent investigation into the treatment of children in prison has found that pain was used to enforce compliance, and that the level of pain used to restrain children in secure custody was entirely unacceptable. The report, commissioned by the Howard League for Penal Reform, states that unnecessarily painful restraints are used to deal with dissent in some situations. Handcuffs were used on children in the four privately run secure training centres. The inquiry found that one in five restraints on children resulted in injury. Lord Carlisle's report concluded that police should be ready to prosecute in cases where children appear to have been assaulted. The inquiry was launched following the death of Garth Myatt, 15, in April 2004, after being restrained by three members of staff at Rainsbrook secure training centre.
BBC News 17.2.06; Howard League for Penal Reform.
UK: Report on "struggling" HMP Lincoln. An unannounced visit to HMP Lincoln found the jail struggling to deliver a satisfactory regime. The reception environment was poor, with limited information for prisoners and a rushed induction process. Anti-bullying and suicide/self-harm prevention measures were inconsistent. Vulnerable prisoners required better support, access to faith services was inconsistent; food was served at inappropriate times and provision for foreign nationals was poor. HMP Lincoln struggled to provide purposeful activity for prisoners or to focus effectively on resettlement. Prisoners spent too long in their cells - longer than official records suggested. What work was available was mundane and of little vocational value. There was minimal offending behaviour work and drug treatment patchy. HMP Lincoln was "merely housing its prisoners."
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons "Report on an unannounced full follow-up inspection of HMP Lincoln, 12-15 September 2005" http//inspectorates.home office.gov.uk/hmprisons/inspect_reports/hmp-yoi-inspections.html.lincoln.pdf?view=binary
UK: "Depressing" report on HMP Woodhill. The Chief Inspector of Prisons makes 166 recommendations for improvement at HMP Woodhill in what is described as a "depressing" report. At-risk prisoners were poorly supported, despite 10 suicides in the past three years, and anti-bullying measures had not been brought in. Seven out of ten prisoners reported bullying incidents in the last month. There were just five Samaritan trained list