UK: Long Lartin anti-bullying procedures "inadequate"
01 March 2006
Long Lartin is one of the five high security dispersal prisons in the UK. An unannounced visit by HM Prisons Inspectorate has found inadequate anti-bullying procedures (with most prisoners stating they had felt unsafe at some point) and a "grossly inadequate" night sanitation system. "The grounds were littered with parcels of excrement thrown from cell windows by prisoners who did not even have access to hand washing facilities. This was not merely degrading for prisoners and staff, but, on occasions, had even led to outdoor exercise being cancelled because of the health hazard." Policies and provision for foreign nationals were underdeveloped and the arrival of a number of prisoners detained under anti-terror legislation had drawn these failings into sharp relief. At the time of the inspection nine detainees were being housed separately in what had once been the segregation unit, with another held in health care. The inspection also highlighted failings in the segregation unit, with the great majority of incidents of use of force taking place in the unit, with disproportionate use of force against black and ethnic minority prisoners.
None of this will come as a surprise to prisoners who have served time at Long Lartin. Concerns though have long been raised about the treatment of prisoners in the segregation unit, with one prisoner-correspondent highlighting that, contrary to Long Lartin's suicide prevention policy, he was on three occasions denied access to a listener in the unit, and another prisoner currently engaged in litigation over injuries caused through the use of handcuffs while he was unconscious. The Inspectorate report states that the incentives and earned privileges scheme is fair, but many prisoners fighting to have their convictions overturned report that they are unable to progress to the enhanced level of IEP at Long Lartin unless they attend offending behaviour classes. One prisoner whose conviction was held by the European Court to have been obtained in breach of his Article 6 rights has been told by Long Lartin management that "the ECHR doesn't run our IEP scheme"!
"Report of unannounced visit to HMP Long Lartin", HM Prisons Inspectorate, 14 March 2006