Part 3 of aseries
The H.M. Northward Prison Report - The Reception of Inmates
Sir David began his examination of conditionsat Northward Prison by looking at the way new inmates are metat the institution and stressed the importance this first meetingis conducted: "The way in which prisoners are received intocustody and introduced to prison life is a crucial task for everyprisoner, particularly an establishment that receives people intocustody for the first time. The important elements of a receptionprocess are treating new prisoners with respect and providingthem with sufficient information to be able to survive and makebest of their time in custody."
He described physical arrangements for receivingnew prisoners at Northward as primitive and unsuitable.
He said the reception area comprised a simpleroom with no newspapers, book or magazines to attract prisoner'sattention. That area had no shower and - to his satisfaction -prison staff were not averse to refusing to take prisoners fromthe police unless they were reasonably clean and presentable.
Normally the day after reception a nursesaw all new prisoners and a good assessment of a prisoner's stateof health and medical needs was carried out. Additionally thedistrict's medical practitioner attended the prisoner every Friday.
"We were delighted to see that thebuilding of a purpose designed reception building was a priorityfor senior managers who planned that the new building should beready for occupation later in the year 2001."
He said that in contrast to unsuitable physicalarrangements for receiving new prisoners, their treatment by prisonstaff was excellent.
"We were impressed with the thoroughnessof the administrative process and the determination of receptionstaff to hold prisoners in the gate area for a short time as possible,normally between 45 minutes to an hour."
Introduction
He commended the residential Principal Officerfor the attention given to new prisoners and added that a manifestationof care given to prisoners was the speed with which they got informationabout their earliest date of release, parole eligibility dateand latest date of release.
"All new prisoners received a copyof a small leaflet containing information about what would happento them in their early days and answers to some initial questionsabout what they want to know. The induction leaflet was an admirableinitiative and provided useful information. We recommend thatthe excellent start that had been made should be consolidatedand developed into an effective induction programme. Prison officersshould be trained to lead the induction programme and in additionto the subjects already listed in the induction leaflet thereshould be sessions on: the basic rules of the prison, buildingrelationships with staff and other prisoners, security classification,coping with custody, exercise, fire precautions and evacuationprocedures, grievance procedures, Hygiene procedures and employment."
The UK Chief Inspector of Prisons calledfor a professional emphasis on sentence planning and involvementof individual staff with prisoners through a personal officerscheme. He said that every prisoner who passes through D Wing(or A Wing in case of young offenders) should be subject to ananalysis of the reasons behind his offending behaviour. He explainedthat the sentence plan should produce objectives for the prisonerto achieve, based on an analysis of need.
Key Worker Scheme:
Sir David said that fundamental to properworking of a sentence planning system is training of staff inthe way they are to interact with prisoners as personal officers.
Religious Activities
At the time of Sir David's visit the prison was without a full-timechaplain. The post had been advertised and an appointment wasimminent. In the meantime, the chaplaincy was being looked afterby a part-time chaplain who had many years of experience of ministeringto prisoners and there was afull programme of religious servicesand other activities throughout the week.
"We were entirely satisfied that prisonershad ample opportunity to practice and develop their Christianfaith, though we were concerned that the Catholic Church apparentlyhad no contact with the prison. Nor were there any facilitiesor arrangements for non-Christian religious activities.
"Currently there was no list of prisonersby chosen religious denominations. There should be. There wasno voicemail arrangement for the chaplain, so in his absence anytelephone calls were not recorded. A voicemail facility shouldbe provided."
Safe from bullying
Sir David said he observed a relaxed prison environment but thisis not to infer that bullying was absent altogether.
According to this UK Chief Inspector of Prisons a prison environment,by its very nature, encourage bullying between staff and otherstaff, between staff and prisoners, between prisoners and prisoners.He added that in some cases at Northward prisoners were able tointimidate certain staff.
"The most important antidote to a bullyingprison environment is the establishment of clear rules governingthe behaviour of prisoners and staff and the fair applicationof these rules by managers. It should be a key objective for seniormanagement to ensure that such basic rules are clear to all parties,disseminated widely and consistency enforced."
He said there was no anti-bullying policyin place at the time of the inspection and one important contributionto the presentation of clear rules should be the establishmentof an effective anti-bullying policy to which all people in theestablishment, staff and prisoners should be committed.
Sir David advised: "The need to workagainst bullying should start in reception/induction and continuein the living units where regular and frequent prisoner/ staffmeetings should take place at which the subject of bullying shouldbe openly discussed. Managers should be helped to understand theworld of difference that exists between professional assertivenessand bullying behaviour. The anti-bullying strategy should reflectthe different sections of the population, in particular the needfor a different approach to anti-bullying where young prisonersare concerned. Anger management and social skills courses shouldcontinue to be an integral part of the anti-bullying policy."
He said also that staff should ensure thatgood records are kept of bullying behaviour perpetrated by individualprisoners and of the steps taken to counter such behaviour.