Is Today’s Prison Service in England and Wales fit for purpose? Does it achieve its aims? I would strongly argue against this. The prison service this country has today is on the precipice of disaster.
Immediately prior to the 1997 General Election, Jack Straw confirmed the Labour Party Criminal Justice Policy to the Annual Conference of the Prison Officers’ Association: all private sector prisons would be returned to the public sector. A week after the general election Jack Straw and Labour reversed this policy, announcing all new prisons would be built and run by the private sector. The Labour Government then went on to open seven new prisons, all of which were in the private sector; this figure was nearly double the previous Conservative Government’s four private sector prisons.
During the 13 years of the Labour Government, they were criticised for overspending on the public sector, leading the country to the brink of financial collapse. None of this overspending went to the Prison Service. During their period in power on each and every pay review for Prison Officer Grades, not once did the award meet let alone beat the rate of inflation.
So what was Labour’s next move to ensure the safety of the general public from crime? The 2003 Criminal Justice Bill, Paragraph 244 of which states:
244 Duty to release prisoners
(1) As soon as a fixed-term prisoner, other than a prisoner to whom section 247 applies, has served the requisite custodial period, it is the duty of the Secretary of State to release him on licence under this section.
(2) Subsection (1) is subject to section 245.
(3) In this section “the requisite custodial period” means—
(a) in relation to a person serving a sentence of imprisonment for a term of twelve months or more or any determinate sentence of detention under section 91 of the Sentencing Act, one-half of his sentence.
The effect of this Bill in the prison system was that prisoners are now automatically released after half of their sentence, irrespective of their behaviour in custody. No offending behaviour work is required. At the same time Prison Officer Grades were being given real terms pay cuts whilst the Labour Government of the day was deliberately making their job far more hazardous, and increasing the risk to the general public.
However, Labour has been out of power since May 2010, so what has changed since then? Well there has been no change to the 2003 Criminal Justice Bill, and Prison Officer Grades have had a pay freeze since 2010 despite recommended 1% cost of living pay awards for Civil Servants since 2011.
The Coalition Government has brought in new terms and conditions with new pay structures. As an Officer at my establishment if I moved onto the new terms and conditions I would be taking approximately an £8000 pay cut, but I live in rented key worker accommodation, and a pay cut of this magnitude would mean I could not afford to live in housing specifically made available to key workers. A policy designed to make Prison Officers homeless would seem to be the result of this restructure! So could I be promoted? Yes I could, but that would mean a £3,000 pay cut, so I would then be working purely to pay rent! This situation has occurred as a result of a four year pay freeze and inflation rate rises in key worker housing rent during the same period. Please take a moment to consider the effect this has upon morale.
So how does one become a valued Prison Officer as people now beat down the door to join the Prison Service? There is no minimum educational standard required to join the Prison Service, and the minimum joining age is 18. Candidates have to answer questions on the Prison Service website to progress their application. The following is taken directly from the Prison Service website:
Sample Question 2
84 Prisoners live on B Wing which is fully occupied. There are 2 beds in each cell.
How many cells are there on B Wing?
This is the level at which people are now being recruited and expected to deal with the most dangerous members of society: terrorists; murderers; sex offenders; gangsters; and drug dealers for example. But the general public should not worry because the Prison Service is deliberately recruiting people who can divide 84 by 2!
Following on from the new terms and conditions of employment the Coalition Government are also restructuring the Prison Service under Zero Resourced Bench-marking and New Ways of Working, (yes management grades are employed to think these names up – nice work if you can get it). The vast majority of prisons that have been bench-marked have had a reduction in Prison Officers of all ranks, which means less Officers to deal with prisoners. Hundreds of Officers have left the Prison Service on voluntary redundancy over the last two years. Their experience obviously went with them, but again the general public need not worry as the Prison Service is actively replacing them with people who can divide 84 by 2 on thousands of pounds a year less. Whilst I state this I am not intending to insult and denigrate newcomers to the Prison Service, far from it, what I am doing is demonstrating the techniques used by the Coalition Government and the Prison Service to justify paying Prison Officer Grades a salary far below the national average wage for a job, which is nothing like the national average occupation. The Prison Service states that it is merely following the market forces of the private sector, a disingenuous claim because the entry requirements there are the same: be at least 18 and able to divide 84 by 2! All the time people join for £18,000 a year under these terms and conditions, the Prison Service and the Government will continue to use market forces as its excuse for such appalling pay for such a difficult job.
I am sure this must be very reassuring to the general public who are worried about crime levels. If minimum educational standards were required, along with a higher minimum age (life experience is a very important factor in becoming a Prison Officer) how would the recruitment levels on the existing terms be then? Market forces would dictate a higher rate of pay and in return get a higher quality of candidate. This in turn would lead to a better Prison Service and better value for money for the hard pressed taxpayer.
In a following article, I will reflect on the effect all this is having on the Prison Service today.
Click here for Part Two – Solutions
legalise drugs will deflate the pressure in our prison system , and bring down our crime , being addicted is a mental illness ? and should be treated as such …..www.petercampbell.faithweb.com
This is an excellent article Phil. The problem Is there has to be integrity in every aspect. I remember an officer moaning because of a prisoner becoming a bit boisterous. He was not typical of most officers. I said to him “for gods sake nurses in A + E are seriously assaulted every Friday and Saturday night, you have to manage prisoners”.
Prison staff must not come across as being moaning ninnies. This has the opposite effect. Prisoner throws plate at door – is not serious and is part of the job. Prisoners subverting a wing or prison, on a daily basis. Prisoners dictating the trend, direction of how a wing is run is very serious and when senior management lack the gumption to deal with this it is then we have a serious problem.
If it is staff shortages through lack of financial injection, then this much be raised as a major concern. But I feel this is demeaned by over the top reports on a prisoner not cooperating ???? Thats what they do … they do not cooperate.!! I am not saying incidents are not important factors on ability to control. I am saying that the cause – reason for it has to be grouped together and that should be the focus. If not you will have situations whereby the Government – Ministry of Justice will point to prisons which do not have serious disruption and blame the staff in the prisons with problems.
The POA as been beaten softly – softly over the years because they sought confrontation on the issues which were not that important from the staff in prisons perspective. Privatisation by stealth is almost a done deal. Where was the opposition to this ? Why no industrial action ? Work to rule ??
If I was still working I would propose that the top committee in the POA declare their wages and if they are on the pay widely as claimed for top union people I would try to oust the NEC and get people who are in touch and not cossetted.
AS soon as I saw cameras and all sorts of gadgetry installed in Cat C prisons years ago I knew this was the start of dumbing down ref staffing. IF THE PRISONERS CAN NOT ESCAPE THE PUBLIC DONT CARE.
I also predicted that Statute 52 (Every prison officer has the same rights and privileges as a Police Constable) would be used against us. I was laughed at by established POA Union staff. What happened ??? It was used against us. i/e we were stopped from striking in a stroke.
My point is .. the people at the top in the prison service are Oxford – Cambridge graduates. They are not stupid. They know exactly what to do and they do it by stealth – as in Cameras in Cat C prisons first – then introduce procedure to take on the POA. Because the prisoners cant escape and the staff cant take industrial action.
So I ask . what will UKIP do .. a direct question. Dont say the rhetorical niceties such as .. “we in UKIP want more officers” because you will never get one person disagree with that will you ?? or “prisoners should be punished for incidents in prisons” .. you wont get anyone disagree with that will you ????
What EXACTLY is UKIP proposing ?? If you say … “well, if elected and if the finances allow we will crack down on prisoners and boost staffing” thats what all political party say and they never do it because the statement is meaningless.
I want a list of UKIP settled policy on prisons. Please.
Thanks for your comment and compliment about my article. I will have to ask you be patient with me in respect of settled policy in prisons. The reason for this is that it is currently being formulated and I am assisting Gerard Batten MEP in doing this. Once we are happy with what we have discussed I believe that it will have to go to the Party to be discussed and ratified as policy. Once this has been done then UKIP will be in a place to specifically answer your request. Although not giving you a direct answer immediately, this is something that needs to be got right as the Prison Service is in a critical situation and I look forward to hearing your thoughts once the process of completing the policy is complete.
Thanks for your response Phil. I look forward to reading it.
Phil
What started out as a great article falls into mediocrity. You missed so many issues. the issue of whether someone who can divide two numbers makes them unsuitable to be a prison officer is nonsense. You need to ask why the entrance tests were dumbed down in the first place. Part of the problem with the service is the degree graduate candidates joining directly into senior manager positions, this is hugely damaging to the service, for instance I know of 3 ex RBS managers who left RBS when it collapsed to joined the prison service as a direct entrant (senior managers) after 8 weeks of training. When I joined in 1984 at 21 apart from good educational standard you had to have good life skills, good people skills, a huge degree of common sense and a sense of humour. At 18 you have little of any of these qualities and spending your time gaining a degree doesn’t give common sense.
There used to be a respect between prisoners and prison officers sadly that has gone staff are threaten daily as there is nothing anyone is willing to do.
The cost of providing prison places increased when the “decency agenda” was formed, I think by Derek Lewis in its early stages. This meant that no more slopping out no more three men in a cell designed for one, when you empty a third of a prison they have to go somewhere which means building another prison and recruiting more staff. you need to understand staff to prisoner ratios to see my point.
MCS identified a fortune in savings that were never taken out and they did it without the need to change terms and conditions or freeze pay and before I get flamed no staff every lost their jobs either. I had not had a pay rise for 3 years prior to my early retirement and if I had stayed in the job I wouldn’t have had another one until my final retirement age at 55.
There are no gold plated pensions in the prison service, everyone works bloody hard for their meagre pension.
I can say that if there is a long hot summer this year there will be severe problems in our jails I just pray no staff are injured.
Back to basics is the only way forward for a failing service
Thank you for your comment. This is only part one of the article, part two will be published shortly. I hope this will change your opinion of the mediocrity you cite, as I address some of the issues you have raised. I would like to clarify though, that I am a serving Prison Officer and POA Branch Chair, and I am wholeheartedly dedicated to raising the profile of the issues faced by front-line staff in the Prison Service. I totally agree with you over the issue of people joining the Service as managers and never serving any time working on the landings. This has led to some disastrous decisions, some of which I have been on the receiving end of as a ‘landing Officer’. With the recent riots that have occurred, I sadly do not believe we will have to wait for summer for the problems in prisons to become more frequent and more dangerous.
I am one of those experienced Officers, leaving the job after 18 years service, I’m also ex Police and ex-Royal Navy…no pay rise for years, appalling working conditions, no support, victimised and bullied if you take one days sick,work load has doubled with less staff to do it, very dangerous times,so glad I took the package, i admire the Officers left, working in low morale and short staffed conditions. I now have my life back, im better for it, no stress , healthier and happier..one thing that needs addressing is bullying by some senior managers to the extent of threats and intimidation, I trusted some prisoners more than I did them…
Not an officer grade, but an ex manager in the service. No pay rise for 9 years, budgets cut to the quick, left in disgust after 32 years in service having watched delivery slide, and the prisoners have less and less discipline. Front line staff – officers, teachers, medics and anyone who has prisoner contact put themselves on the line daily, and it is becoming a frightening place to work, and there seems little backup. When the lunatics begin to run the asylum, you will have problems, and what is happening daily is frightening, yet rarely reported in the press.
So what are UKIP going to do differently? Promise improvements to pay & conditions for staff then shat on us like Lab & Cons?
There is only one way to find out isn’t there. And at the end of the day, what’s to lose?
Thank you for your question. UKIP take the issue of the ineffectiveness of current sentencing seriously, and aim to double the number of prison places within ten years. Current sentencing policy uses concurrent sentencing which means only the most serious offence is truly punished, whilst any other crimes effectively go unpunished. UKIP seeks to end this situation. Overall UKIP will seeks to improve the quality of prisons and keep habitual and serious offenders off the streets, which has a knock on effect of reducing the social costs attached to crime. Staff need to be better treated, and trained than they are now, particularly after the way in which Labour and Coalition policy has devalued the profession over a large number of years. The only way UKIP can prove this is for people to reject the failings of the current three Westminster parties, and vote UKIP.