Confidence and Supply

 

Much of the focus on prison reform in recent months has been on managing burgeoning demand for places. The newly formed JusticeSelect Committee started their examination of Prisons Minister Lord Timpson this week by asking how long the space freed up by the SDS 40 early release scheme might last.

The answer it seems is next Autumn or maybe a bit longer. That’s hoped to be enough time to create longer term sustainability in the system by putting in place whatever legislative changes are recommended by the David Gauke Sentencing Review.

But is that realistic? Even if Gauke manages to report in the Spring, his proposals are likely to be controversial. Getting them on to the statute book and then implemented could easily take another year.

The MoJ handily has a couple of further demand reduction measures up its sleeve- a change to the process of recalling released prisoners to jail in April and extending to a year the period of release on a Home Detention Curfew for eligible prisoners, from June. So they may muddle through.

But what about the supply of new prison places?

MPs heard that the new all electric Millsike Prison in North Yorkshire is on track to open in April, (although like all new prisons will surely need time to reach its full capacity of 1500). A new houseblock at Rye Hill in Warwickshire will also be ready early next year which should add 450 additional places. Timpson also said that HMP Dartmoor - closed in the Summer because of high levels of Radon- will re-open when safe, making more than 600 places available.

Prison Service Chief Amy Rees told the Committee that planning permission had now been granted for 17,000 of the 20,000 proposed new prison places. (The outstanding decision on the one remaining new build prison near Wymott and Garth in Lancashire is due to be made by mid-December).

Planning delays have added between 18 months and 3 years to the original timelines according to Ms Rees. In future, planning for prisons will be treated as Crown development with urgent procedures for reaching decisions and more in the way of permitted development on existing sites.  

On the downside, Timpson revealed that 100 projects in courts and prisons were affected when construction company ISG filed for administration in September. 79 will require re-procurement.

He also acknowledged the significant shortcomings in the physical condition of the existing estate although did not put a financial cost on the backlog of maintenance. It was £1 billion in 2021 and seemed to suggest it has doubled since then.

What we do know is that there are still 23,000 cells which require fire safety upgrades. According to my calculations, the necessary work has been progressing at the rate of about 3,000 cells a year- far too few to meet the commitment to complete the work by 2027.  The latest HMPPS Annual report, published last week but curiously unmentioned in the Select Committee, says reaching the target is “finely balanced in terms of the future headroom position and we are likely to require additional places out of use in future years to achieve this aim.”

More broadly, inspection and monitoring reports have drawn repeated attention to often shocking failings in infrastructure. These aren’t limited to the 25 odd prisons dating from the Victorian era. The HMPPS Annual Report revealed that in May 2024, eight sites were confirmed as containing RAAC.

HMPPS have undertaken a comprehensive survey of conditions in the prisons. I was pleased to hear Ms Rees tell the committee that the report of the survey would be published shortly particularly as the MoJ had refused my FOI request to see it.  

But then according to the HMPPS Annual Report, the Final Report of the Survey was published in June 2024. It wasn’t.  I have asked the Justice Committee to try to clarify the position.

A Secure Future?

 

In 2016, Charlie Taylor’s Review of Youth Justice concluded that “fundamental change is needed to the current youth custody system”. He found children spending too much time in their cells; inadequate education and rehabilitation; and increasing violence both among children and towards staff.

This week Taylor- now Chief Inspector of Prisons-reported that Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) are still “dominated by violence and disorder and weak education”. If anything, eight years on, things are worse.

It’s not surprising that children’s experiences in YOI’s are as dismal as they are given the fundamental unsuitability of prison establishments for their care.

 At Feltham in West London, over the summer two serious incidents of violence led to 34 members of staff being injured.

“Inspectors saw children trying to get to each other through locked gates as they were returning from education.”

But most “simply did not attend enough education to make substantial progress.”

Compare this to a Secure Childrens Home (SCH) in Nottingham where inspectors found a much more positive setting. When children are at risk of hurting themselves or others, staff intervene with physical holds which are used safely, proportionately, and for a short length of time. When children do not get on with each other, appropriate action is taken to prevent potential bullying. Staff work with children to repair relationships whenever possible.  

School attendance is very high. Some children achieve GCSEs in core subjects, others study vocational options in line with their career ambitions.

SCH’s are much smaller facilities than YOIs with better trained staff and a greater ability to choose which children they take. And they cost a lot more.

So while they probably cannot replace YOIs altogether, it’s always puzzled me why Taylor’s Review did not recommend their expansion. They consistently provide high quality care and education, but the numbers of places have reduced substantially in recent years

Instead Taylor arguably overcomplicated matters by inventing a new hybrid institution -the Secure School- which is both a SCH and a 16-19 Academy. After a protracted and expensive development of the old Medway Secure Training Centre, Oasis Restore took its first children in August.

We learned this week that the Secure School’s Principal Director and Responsible Individual, Andrew Willetts will start a new job in January, as Chief Executive Officer at The Orpheus Trust. The Director of Care and Wellbeing left Oasis Restore in June before the first children were even placed there.

I don’t know exactly what lies behind these moves, but it cannot help the stability of any institution if the leader who’s spent three years preparing it to open departs so soon after it does. Despite misgivings about the need for a new model of custody, I hope Oasis Restore proves successful.

In 2016 the government agreed with the Taylor Review’s vision that YOIs and STCs should be replaced in the longer term by smaller secure schools situated in the regions that they serve.  

This week’s bleak inspection reports on youth custody confirm the need for change- but whether by more Secure Schools or Secure Childrens Homes remains open to debate.