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8. CARE
Family Contact
8.1 Arrangements for maintaining family contact are good. Prisoners receive their full entitlement to visits, and the visits themselves are easy to book. Unconvicted prisoners receive visits in the afternoon and convicted prisoners receive theirs in the evening. This is a relatively new arrangement and does not appear to have caused any problems: prisoners spoken to did not express any reservations. Visitors arrive at the Visitors Centre located in the car park just outside the perimeter and then make their way into the prison shortly before the visit starts. The Visitor Information System (biometric identification) had not been working for a number of months prior to inspection and a manual checking system was in place. Staff suggested that this had resulted in more banned visitors gaining access to the visits room.
8.2 There are three dedicated Family Contact Development Officers ( FCDO) in post. One of these officers is always present during visits. The FCDOs have a clearly marked office in the visits room and they aim to provide advice and support to families as required. There is a dedicated telephone line in this office for families to phone should they require help outside visiting hours. The FCDOs provide an input to the family induction session for convicted prisoners held on Friday mornings. They also hold weekly 'surgeries' in the Visitors Centre. They are developing a system of visitor feedback to help target their services. The family induction session on Friday mornings continues to be a major success.
8.3 The visits room itself is bright and spacious. Staff supervise the visits in a sensitive manner while retaining appropriate levels of security. A shop offering light refreshments is operated by 'Friends of Edinburgh Prison'. A children's play area is run by 'Toybox'. There is suitable access for disabled visitors. The visits room was coping with the demands placed on it by the additional long-term prisoners.
8.4 Prisoners did not raise any concerns when asked about how their privileged correspondence was handled.
Physical Education
8.5 The PE Department has one manager and five PEI's. There are also Sports and Games Officers in the residential areas who sometimes help outwith recreational PE sessions. The gym employs three prisoners for cleaning the various equipment and facilities.
8.6 Recreational PE sessions are available every morning, afternoon and evening during the week and in the morning and afternoon at weekends. The timetable in place ensures fair access to all areas. Facilities consist of a weights/cardiovascular room and a small gym. Changing and showering facilities are limited. A new gym is part of the next phase of the development plan. The PE staff make use of the astro-turf pitches adjacent to the residential areas. Recreational PE consists mainly of weights, circuit training, football and volleyball. All convicted prisoners are seen during induction by a PEI. All prisoners attending the gym are given an induction to make sure they exercise safely before they are issued their membership card. The gym has a "no card no entry" system.
8.7 Despite the ageing facilities, PE is vibrant. Plans are in place to improve the service to prisoners in terms of access to qualifications and learning as well as the planned improvement in facilities. Relationships in the gym were very good, and prisoners spoke highly of the experience.
Social Work
8.8 The social work department is well staffed at present. The recent contract review agreed that the complement be increased by two posts. There is therefore one team manager, one senior social worker, 6.5 full time equivalent social workers, one senior administrator and one support assistant. In the last year the social work staffing levels were low because of difficulty in recruiting. One locum social worker will leave in October and it is hoped to replace this post with a new initiative: a prison officer secondment into the social work department. This officer would work with the duty service induction process and non-statutory phase two throughcare tasks.
8.9 Social work is housed on the third floor of the Hub. This is an appropriate location as it is close to the Links Centre, programmes, psychology, addictions and other agencies. The social work department also point out that it is very close to Ingliston Hall where the majority of their clients are housed. There are no problems arranging interviews with the prisoners either in the Links Centre or in the residential areas.
8.10 Social workers carry a caseload of approximately 50 statutory cases e.g. prisoners subject to mandatory post-release supervision and/or Schedule 1 Offenders as well as a range of other work. All statutory prisoners are interviewed on admission, supervising authorities are determined, risk assessments carried out and, when appropriate, child protection procedures put in place. One of the social workers in the team is trained in the "Rolling Stop" programme and regularly co-facilitates this programme in the prison. The department has devised, along with psychologists, a programme for short term sex offenders who are not able to take part in "Rolling Stop".
8.11 Social work is involved in the induction programme every Thursday morning to inform prisoners entering the prison about their role.
8.12 At the time of the inspection there were 66 unallocated cases. This number had been reduced from more than 100. These unallocated cases are prioritised and consist mainly of long-term prisoners transferred in, prisoners with longer term parole dates and prisoners who are serving a life sentence.
8.13 The social workers have very good relationships with all staff. They have good communications particularly with the gate visit staff and the FCDOs in relation to child protection issues. Any concern is passed to area teams in the community. The social work team is also involved in a variety of meetings within the prison including Mental Health. ACT Co-ordinators group, and the Choose Life Initiative. The manager attends a number of community based meetings.
8.14 The social work department still has some concerns about inappropriate referrals from hall staff in relation to housing matters and benefits. These matters should be referred to the agencies which are present in the Links Centre. The social work department recognises that hall managers have made efforts to resolve this but the problem seems to persist.
8.15 All sex offenders are allocated to caseloads but concern was expressed about the SPS Policy that sex offenders do not qualify for the new enhanced casework addiction services. Sex offenders who have addiction problems would seem likely to benefit from the same services in addiction as the other prisoners receive.
Psychology
8.16 The Psychology Department comprises four members of staff, and although it had been under complement by one since January, is now up to full strength. There is no administrative support. The new SPS arrangement (from January 2005) where the Psychology Department reports directly to the Governor of the establishment rather than Headquarters appeared to be working well. It provided the opportunity to extend the range of work on offer.
8.17 The Department is based in the Hub which allows greater contact, communication and integration with other agencies - particularly the Social Work Unit and Addictions Intervention service located nearby. They are involved in five core areas of work:
- Sentence Management
- Programmes ('Lifeline' and 'Rolling STOP')
- Risk assessment and advice
- Mental Health
- Consultancy and advice on prisoner matters
8.18 Within these areas, a major area of work is input to the Rolling STOP Programme which is an intensive programme for sex offenders. This is time consuming for the psychologists.
8.19 Although the Department had not yet been affected, staff anticipated that over time the arrival of the new long-term prisoners would increase the volume of work, particularly in relation to risk assessment, programmes, and Sentence Management.
8.20 The Department was well integrated into the prison and was involved in a number of meetings including Mental Health, Sentence Management, Case Conferences, Residential Unit Managers' meeting, and sometimes the morning meeting for Senior Managers.
Programmes
8.21 The Programmes Unit is located within the Links Centre, and has four programme delivery rooms with separate staff office accommodation. There are seven programmes staff. Available programmes currently include:
- Rolling STOP for Sex Offenders
- Drugs: Action for Change
- Alcohol Awareness
- Relationship Skills
- Lifeline
8.22 The programmes completion target for 2004-05 was 131 and the total achieved was 157. It is too early in the current reporting year to estimate completion however, from 1 April to 30 June 2005, 1,134 hours against a completion target of 4,804 hours had been recorded.
8.23 With the increase in long-term prisoners, the Unit is making preparations to re-introduce the Anger Management and Cognitive Skills Programmes: staff are undergoing training to deliver these. The risk and needs assessments which accompany the Sentence Management for long-term prisoners are now beginning to work through as referrals to programmes. The delivery of programmes at Edinburgh is well organised and managed by a group of experienced staff.
Race Relations
8.24 One Race Relations Manager and eleven trained Race Relations Officers ( RRO) were in post. These duties were in addition to others held within the prison. No residential officers were RROs. Two of the RROs were also Family Contact Development Officers and two were located in induction.
8.25 There were 26 ethnic minority and seven foreign national prisoners being held in the prison during the inspection, (over 4% of the total Edinburgh prisoner population). The Telephone Interpreting Service is in place for prisoners who cannot speak English; two ethnic minority prisoners present the Race Relations Policy and general information about the prison during induction; catering and dietary needs are met; and there is a multi-faith facility with the Hub. Race Relations material is also displayed throughout the prison.
8.26 Despite all of these positive initiatives there was no formal Race Relations Group in place. Given the number of ethnic minority and foreign national prisoners held, the prison should consider setting up such a Group.
8.27 Three complaints had been made through the Confidential Race Incident Reporting Forms: one of these was ongoing and two had been investigated fully and dealt with appropriately.
Chaplaincy
8.28 There were four Chaplains in post at the time of inspection: representing the Scottish Episcopal Church (F/T), the Roman Catholic Church (P/T), the Church of Scotland (P/T) and the Free Church of Scotland (P/T). A member of the Voluntary Salvation Army was also part of the team.
8.29 The team is based in the Hub alongside the range of services described elsewhere in this report. The Chapel is therefore a new building and provides good space for worship and meetings. There is also a multi-faith room, and a classroom for group work located close to the Chapel.
8.30 The Chaplains are proactive in their work, visiting the halls every day and responding to requests and referrals. They enjoy good and positive relations with staff, reflected in the fact that the number of referrals of prisoners by staff was increasing. They were also very positive about relationships with other staff in the prison, saying that they feel well supported by the Governor, his team and uniformed staff. The Chaplains are members of the Multi-Disciplinary Mental Health Team, and are fully involved in ACT.
Visiting Committee
8.31 The members of the Visiting Committee have been active in concern over two matters in particular.
8.32 They have expressed their concern over the inadequate number of staff operating in the health centre. In particular they have expressed fears about the ability of the prison to deliver adequate health care in the fields of addiction and mental health. On these matters their annual report says "the problem is now acute".
8.33 They have, secondly, taken a particular interest in food. They eat it regularly in the company of prisoners, and representatives have attended meetings of the Prisoners' Catering Committee. They have received very few complaints about food, but their Annual Report does say "there does appear to be anecdotal evidence that there are frequent complaints from prisoners about food". They stressed to inspectors their hope for more healthy, nutritious food; and their concern for the lack of increase in the food budget.
8.34 They also, more generally, drew attention to the "relaxed atmosphere in the prison", and to good relationships between staff and prisoners. They have been impressed with the good management of considerable change in the prison in recent times, in particular in connection with the opening of new buildings.
8.35 The Committee feels well supported by the prison: one sign of this is that there is now a Visiting Committee Room.
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