Newsbites

White Paper ignores race, say charity chiefs

Sixty charity leaders have written to Justice Secretary Dominic Raab to question why his Prisons Strategy White Paper appears to ignore the issue of race. The 76-page document, published in December to set out the Government’s plans for prison, does not include the words “race”, “racial” or “racism”. It mentions “ethnicity” twice, once in relation to staff diversity and once about women in prison. The charity leaders point out that people from a Black and minority ethnic background are overrepresented in the prison population. They say: “The White Paper outlines its ambition for ‘the biggest prison building programme’ in a century, with no proposals for how existing racial disparity will be addressed or future inequalities prevented.” Those signing include executives from the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT), Nacro, Unlock and the Prisoners Education Trust.

Tenfold rise in cocaine finds 

Finds of cocaine in prisons have increased tenfold in the past three years, official figures show. Until 2018, there were fewer than 200 incidents per year of cocaine being found in prisons in England and Wales. This leapt to more than 2,000 incidents in 2021 – a steeper increase than for finds of any other drug. The figures were disclosed in Parliament in January by Prisons Minister Victoria Atkins, who pointed out that the Prison Service was spending £100 million on security measures including x-ray body scanners. Overall, drugs of different kinds were found in prisons on 20,295 occasions in 2021 – slightly down on the figure from 2021, but still above pre-Covid levels. Officials point out that an increase in drug finds does not necessarily reflect increased drug use, but can also show that the authorities are becoming better at detecting contraband.

Magistrates’ sentencing reform means more prisoners

New powers to let magistrates jail people for up to a year will add to the pressure on prison places, the Government has admitted. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab announced the reform in January, extending the maximum sentence which can be handed down by magistrates from six months to 12, as a way to reduce the backlog of cases in the Crown Court. Ministers insist the change will not mean longer jail terms, or people being jailed who would otherwise not have been, because magistrates will follow the same sentencing guidelines as judges. However, Justice Minister James Cartlidge told MPs last month that as a result of the change, “Cases may complete more quickly which may impact the prison population. This additional impact has been factored into our modelling and we have considered the additional prison places that may therefore be needed as a result.”

Offending behaviour courses slump due to Covid

The number of prisoners completing offending behaviour courses has slumped to one-sixth of its pre-Covid level, official figures have shown. In 2019/20, before the virus struck, 5,216 people completed programmes in English and Welsh prisons. In 2020/21, the figure was only 833. Most courses were suspended in March 2020 when prisons went into lockdown. Because they tend to involve group work, they have been slow to restart whilst prisons maintain social distancing restrictions. Completing courses is often a condition for prisoners to be released on parole or moved to open conditions. The Parole Board has conceded that if a prisoner has been unable to complete a course that was recommended for them, even if it was due to Covid, this may count against them at their parole hearing.

Recruitment campaign targets military veterans

The Government is seeking to tackle staff shortages in jails with the launch of a fast-track recruitment scheme for Armed Forces leavers to retrain as prison officers. The Advance into Justice scheme will operate at 50 jails, mostly in the south of England and the Midlands, where staff shortages are most acute. Services personnel are being tempted with relocation packages of up to £12,000 on top of the standard annual starting salary of £24,427.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said: “Veterans have a range of transferrable skills which meet the requirements of the prison officer role: good communication and influencing skills, commitment to quality, effective decision-making, care and understanding.”

First arrivals at Five Wells

The UK’s newest jail has opened for business. HMP Five Wells, in Northamptonshire, received its first prisoners early last month. Numbers are building up slowly, with 25 to 30 more men arriving each week ahead of a formal opening ceremony expected this month. The Category C resettlement prison will eventually hold 1,680, in brand new buildings on the site of the former Wellingborough prison which closed in 2012. Run by private operator G4S, Five Wells has seven houseblocks. Cells are on separate landings rather than traditional galleried walkways, so that men mix in smaller groups at association time – which the Prison Service believes is “conducive to rehabilitation”. Cells are almost all single-occupancy, and their windows have no bars. 

Scottish prisons must be “person-centred,” says SNP

The Scottish Government has launched a fresh drive to cut the country’s prison population, with a focus on reforming lawbreakers instead of punishing them. Keith Brown, the Scottish Justice Secretary, said all justice services – including prisons – must be “person-centred and trauma-informed”. He said he wanted a country “where those who have committed offences will be supported in rehabilitation by the most effective means, primarily remaining in our communities with support and opportunities for fair work, employment and housing”. Brown was speaking last month as he published a paper setting out the justice polices of Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party administration. In a jibe at the UK Government, he said Scotland would avoid “the puerile practice of trying to look tough on crime after crime has happened and victims have suffered, which usually involves locking more people up for longer periods and building more and bigger prisons”.

  See Scottish section page 26

Governor faces jail over WhatsApp messages 

A former prison governor is facing jail after she admitted sending WhatsApp messages to a prisoner on his illicit mobile phone. The female official, 47, was Head of Safer Custody and Equalities at HMP Onley when she was arrested in May 2021, after the phone was found in the 29-year-old man’s cell. He is also charged with possessing the device. Judge Adrienne Lucking QC, at Northampton Crown Court, said that the messages seen by police investigating the offence gave a “snapshot” which suggested a “wider relationship” between the two. The ex-governor, who was released on bail after her latest court appearance last month, has pleaded guilty to an offence under Section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007, Northamptonshire Police said. The pair are due to be sentenced this month. Judge Lucking said she “in all likelihood faces a custodial sentence”.

Pope pleads for prisoners

Pope Francis has issued a plea for redemption on behalf of prisoners around the world, saying: “There can’t be sentences without windows of hope.”  Speaking in a public audience at the Vatican in January, the Pontiff said: “We risk being imprisoned in a justice system that doesn’t allow one to easily get back up again and confuses redemption with punishment … It’s right that those who have made a mistake pay for their mistake, but it’s even more right that those who have done wrong should be able to redeem oneself from their mistake.”  Since the Argentinian became head of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013, he has highlighted the needs of prisoners and opposed the death penalty.  Last September he sent 15,000 ice-creams to residents at two jails in Rome, to help them cool down in what was one of the hottest summers on record in Italy.

Women’s prisons ‘should teach more than cleaning and sewing’

MPs investigating prison education have been told that women’s jails only offer training in careers that are seen as traditionally female. Business executive Sasha Simmonds told the Commons Education Committee: “It is unacceptable, in the world we live in today, to only be offering skills such as cleaning, sewing and hairdressing.” Simmonds – who works for O’Neill & Brennan, a consultancy which recruits ex-prisoners for the construction industry – told the MPs that she knew of women who worked in construction whilst on day release, but lacked the opportunity to learn skills such as bricklaying or carpentry which are widely taught in male prisons. Watchdog reports on UK women’s prisons have highlighted the issue. The Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Low Newton has called for “additional less stereotypically women’s employment opportunities”, while inspectors found that women at HMP Cornton Vale in Scotland “were offered activities which have been stereotyped as ‘appropriate.’”

105-year-old prisoner dies

The oldest person to stand trial in an English court has died in prison, aged 105. Ralph Clarke, a former RAF serviceman and lorry driver from Birmingham, was jailed for 16 years in 2016, when he was 101. He had been found guilty of historic sex offences committed in the 1970s and 1980s, after his victims came forward to police when they saw Facebook posts celebrating his 100th birthday. Clarke, who was registered blind and had suffered a heart attack and a stroke, had been at HMP Stafford since 2017. He died in February 2021, but his death was not made public until this year with the publication of an Ombudsman’s report. His cause of death was certified as old age.

Chief Inspector says lockdowns won’t solve violence

The Chief Inspector of Prisons has renewed his call for prisoners to spend more time out of their cells, with a warning that “Suppressing violence through lockdowns is not the long-term answer.” Charlie Taylor spoke out after the Government’s Prisons Strategy White Paper, published in December, concluded that Covid-19 restrictions had made prisons safer by reducing the amount of “association time” when prisoners can mix with one another. The Future Regime Design initiative will give governors new powers to reshape the prison day, in a move that is likely to mean prisoners spending more time in small groups or locked in their cells. The Prison Officers’ Association, which has led calls for the scrapping of association time, praised the White Paper’s pledge as a “glimmer of hope”.