‘Prison reform is in my blood’

Retired prison officer Joe Chapman runs a Facebook forum campaigning for improvements at the UK’s newest jail, HMP Millsike. He spoke with Inside Time

The HMP Millsike Prison Community Forum has published its latest update on the prison near York that has faced controversy since it opened just over a year ago. The group’s members are people with a stake in the prison – family and friends of prisoners, men who have been released, and ex-staff. 

All want to help the staff and management to bring about change. Their coordinator is Joe Chapman. The Forum’s Facebook page describes itself as a safe space for debate, protecting anonymity and not publishing anything that may threaten prisoners or staff. 

I first met Joe after he posted on social media that he felt my report on my visit to Millsike, published in the May issue of Inside Time, was too kind to the establishment. We had a long exchange on the topic.

Joe worked in prisons for 24 years, including at HMP Grendon as an officer and counsellor. After a traumatic experience, he retired from the service. But he tells me that “Prison reform is in my blood,” so he returned to work for the charity RAPT (now known as the Forward Trust) on addiction rehabilitation. As a self-employed consultant, Joe has advised prisoners and families, including at parole hearings. I know people whose children were struggling with problems in various prisons for whom Joe has, in his own time and at his own expense, made submissions. 

In its latest report, the Forum welcomes signs that Millsike has stabilised, but says, “stability alone should not be mistaken for effectiveness”. The Forum welcomes progress such as improved control and roll calls, and better visits – but fears that staffing will never reach the level envisaged.

The report analyses each area of the prison’s operation. Failings are identified within healthcare, including with the distribution of medications. Physical and mental health provision are said to be patchy, and peer support insufficient. Education is allegedly failing to give access to qualifications as anticipated. The Forum says there are delays in sentence planning and in accessing the Building Choices programme. 

After the Forum submitted its report to Mitie, the prison’s private-sector operator, the company’s Managing Director for Justice Services, Russell Trent, contacted Joe. 

Joe told me: “He suggests that once the prison ‘beds in’ there could be formal contact [between the prison management and the Forum]. I pointed out that there are a lot of prisoners in there right now who are being treated like guinea pigs, and a lot of worried families. Nobody wants a prison to succeed as much as the families.

“All prisons have failed to understand how things have changed now people have phones in their cells. When phones were on the landings, inmates could only grab a few minutes to talk, and it was not private. Now they have time to go into detail. We share problems raised, offer a real insight into day-to-day experiences and suggest solutions.

“Prisons develop an operational culture, and if Millsike starts with a negative way of working, it will be hard to change … I told Russell a number of women, on visits, found searches intrusive and uncomfortable. He suggested that these were one-off claims made by people who did not understand the system, but I said that when there are a number of complaints it flags up a problem. We were not suggesting it was deliberate, just inexperience, but it needs resolving.

“Mitie have shown they can be flexible. For instance, there were distressing incidents in the visits hall, when people confronted VPs [Vulnerable Prisoners]. Families felt uncomfortable. They have now arranged separate times for Mains and VP blocks, and whilst it has made it inconvenient for some, it is much safer. The next concern is that some inmates have been moved from Mains to the VP blocks because of prison debts, which could give problems.” Joe adds: “I do not think offence-neutral prisons can work. People must be kept safe.”

Joe says he believes that groups such as his Forum have two important roles. One is as a support group, where people can share their fears and hopes. The second is as an Improvement organisation. We talked about two other prison family groups, the Wandsworth Prison Improvement Campaign and the Swinfen Hall family group on WhatsApp, each pressing for improvements at the prisons they monitor.

Whilst Mitie has offered to show Joe around the prison, he wants the invitation extended to other Forum members. One day, he says, he hopes to step back and relax, as he has been involved in prisons and prison reform for 50 years. “It is only fair on my wife” he says. “I shall give up this work once and for all.”

Yet I cannot see him walking away from prison families. Prison reform, as he admitted, is in his blood.