Why we need a new Woolf Inquiry into Prisons

When Lord Woolf inquired into the 1990 Strangeways riot and those which followed, he concluded that prisons need to keep three dimensions in balance- security, control and fairness. The first two requirements had been prioritised at the expense of the third, fuelling the grievances which drove the protests.  The report into the 2016 Birmingham riot, finally released yesterday suggests that it was a lack of control which was key. The prison had seen a deterioration in the use of legitimate authority, chronic staff shortages and a corrupted system of violence reduction (VR) reps- prisoners with backgrounds in organised crime serving long sentences who policed disputes not always using peaceful means to keep order.

Lack of control was behind yesterdays’ decision to take HMP Birmingham back into the public realm- albeit temporarily. The ghastly consequences spelled out in graphic and distressing detail by Peter Clarke in his Urgent Notification letter mark a new low in the treatment of prisoners and have secured a day’s headlines at least. But what next?

There are two immediate questions to resolve. First, why did the Ministry of Justice not intervene earlier? Prison Minister Rory Stewart was told by the local independent monitoring board in May that “basic humanity, safety and purposeful activity were simply not being delivered”, and the prison service’s own on site  monitor  allegedly agreed that prisoners rather  than staff, appeared to be controlling many of the wings.   We deserve to know whether, as Peter Clarke says, someone was asleep at the wheel or whether as Stewart says yesterday’s forceful action follows an” intensive period of Ministry of Justice measures to compel improvements”. 

Second, how far is this debacle down to privatisation? Unions and Labour apart, the consensus is that the question may be a distraction.  I’m puzzled why G4S allowed the prison to descend into chaos and suffer the undoubted reputational damage. There's history of course, with recent scandals at Medway Secure Training Centre and Brook House Immigration Removal Centre  (where an independent inquiry is underway).

Apart from the disgusting conditions and unchecked violence at Birmingham , staff locked in their offices, unwilling to tackle drug misuse, and not knowing where their prisoners were at any given time, doesn’t look good for what is at heart a security company. The G4S CEO chairs the International Security Ligue, an association of private security organisations responsible for defining, establishing and maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards of the private security industry worldwide. If nothing else, he will not have been impressed by the arson attack during the week of the inspection that destroyed nine staff vehicles. The assertion by former Justice Minister Phillip Lee that “companies are currently ripping off taxpayers” also needs proper investigation.

Peter Clarke has argued for a thorough and independent assessment of how and why the contract between government and G4S has failed, without which he sees no hope of progress. The independent investigation should arguably cover the broader question about the role of the private sector.

But, like part Two of  Woolf’s report, the immediate disaster needs to be a springboard for a wider and searching look at the use and practice of imprisonment  in England and Wales. The practical response to the crisis at Birmingham  -to reduce prisoner numbers and increase staff – is a clue as to what needs to be done across the system.