The Butler Trust Annual Awards

I don’t suppose readers of Inside Time will find it easy to picture a great gathering of prison and probation officers some in smartly-pressed uniform, some in suits, a few of the ladies in dashing hats of the kind you see at Ascot sitting demurely on little gilt chairs, every one of them smiling as benignly as if they were attending a family wedding.

But so it was on a Monday morning early last month (5 March), the day of the Butler Trust annual awards for outstanding service among those who work with offenders inside and outside the prison establishment. The setting was Buckingham Palace. Our hostess was the Princess Royal, patron of the trust, herself dressed in an eye-catching scarlet suit of military cut.

Outside the palace, the St James’s Park daffodils were in full bloom. Inside, the Ballroom was resplendent with Corinthian columns and crimson drapes. A rather grandiose setting, you might say, for a group of men and women whose daily lives are spent at the coal-face of the criminal justice system, whether dealing with prisoners in jail or supervising and helping offenders in the community.

But as a Butler trustee, and also a board member of Inside Time newspaper, I think it is to be applauded that people performing thankless tasks exceptionally well should be exceptionally well thanked. It is splendid that Princess Anne is ready to acknowledge in a very public way what the media and even the Government tend to ignore: the good, humane work done by many good and humane people within the Cinderella services running prisons and probation, often well beyond the call of duty.

Quite a number of the nominations for Butler Trust awards come from prisoners themselves, which is telling. But all are inspired by the same desire: to celebrate and spread good practice in the way offenders are treated, so as to help increase their self-esteem, educate them, end addiction, reduce re-offending and generally make punishment not just about retribution but also rehabilitation.

The Butler Trust examines the hundreds of nominees for these awards closely. I sat in on some of the interviews and was hugely impressed. The winners of the Terry Waite award, for example, were Aubrey Thomas and Rosalind Savage, dealing with close supervision and severe personality disorder prisoners at HMP Whitemoor; often very dangerous men.

Gosh, I thought, listening to them describe their work, these two brave, firm, kind folk should be running the Home Office. Likewise, Andrew Howard and Mark Whelan of HMP Styal’s vulnerable women’s programme team, plus their dog Charlie (who helps to calm agitated inmates but was, alas, not present at the palace), ought to be spreading their approach to first-time prisoners and potential self-harmers throughout the prison system.

Let me also sing the praises of my new prison officer friends Diane Limb and Sara Wager, who have devised a way of registering the achievements of remand prisoners in HMP Bullingdon by way of courses completed and drug treatments undertaken. As a magistrate, I would find such information very influential when it came to sentencing.

Nearly 70 such caring, innovative and thoughtful officers, plus many volunteers, won awards and certificates this year. The assembly included important guests such as Phil Wheatley, Director-General of the Prison Service, Anne Owers, Chief Inspector of Prisons, and Lord Ramsbotham, her predecessor. Addressing them, Princess Anne showed herself extremely well informed on the difficulties posed by overcrowded prisons and a probation service of whom ever-increasing demands are being made. Not only did she have a chat with each winner during the ceremony, afterwards, when everyone moved into the White Drawing Room for smoked chicken salad and a glass of the house wine, she stayed on her feet for a good hour longer to talk in greater depth to those present.

Quite aside from the splendour of the surroundings and the excitement of enjoying a Royal buffet, the whole occasion was tremendously uplifting. There was only one note of unhappiness to mar it. Butler Trust chairman Sir Trevor Brooking had to confess he was feeling gutted. The previous day West Ham had lost 4-3 to Spurs. Not everyone can be a winner.

Trevor Grove is a Magistrate, author and Director of Inside Time and a Trustee of The Butler Trust.