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5. PRISONER MANAGEMENT
Reception
5.1 Greenock has a purpose-built Reception. This is a bright and well-planned unit comprising a communal holding cell for new admissions with integral access to toilet facilities; a search area with showers; and a disabled WC. There are four reception cubicles, one of which is used as a store and a further communal holding cell for prisoners who have been through the reception process. At the entry, there is a reception desk with a staff office, WC and shower, and small pantry. There is a room for the prisoners who work in the reception area, an interview office and access directly to the health centre.
5.2 The layout of the reception area allows a very logical flow of admissions and provides the ability to separate those who have been through the reception procedure from those who have not.
5.3 It is policy at Greenock that the reception cubicles should not be used for holding prisoners except as a place to change, although occasionally those deemed to be in need of separation from others may be held there for a brief time. During the inspection it was observed that one prisoner admitted under the influence of alcohol, accompanied by the police, was appropriately held for a short period in a cubicle.
5.4 When prisoners are required to be held in the Reception over meal times there is provision for plated meals to come from the kitchen and be heated in a microwave. As far as possible, attempts are made to move prisoners to the residential halls quickly, although the volume of admissions often makes this impossible. The Reception is extremely busy, but despite this, it was observed that the atmosphere was relaxed and the relationships between reception staff and those being admitted, whilst appropriate, were also relaxed and informal.
5.5 The Reception has a telephone which is available for prisoners to use. There is also a well-appointed office where interviews can be conducted in privacy, allowing initial interviews and ACT interviews to be carried out in a discrete and appropriate manner. The proximity of the Reception to the Health Centre is a well-designed feature of this building, with a door accessing immediately into a holding room for the Health Centre.
5.6 Posters in a range of the most common foreign languages were on display. The Reception office has a direct line speakerphone which allows access to the National Translator Service. It was indicated that regular use has been made of this service.
5.7 Overall, the Reception impressed as a well run part of the prison where genuine efforts were made to preserve individual dignity in terms of searching and interview procedures, and by the relaxed manner in which staff dealt with individual issues.
5.8 It was noted that at the busiest time of day, when staff were dealing with prisoners returning from placements in Chrisswell, and court admissions in the early evening, routine admissions from a long-term prison also arrived. It was indicated that it was not uncommon for routine admissions to also arrive at this time. Given that there is a national escort contract it seems unnecessary that routine transfers, which are planned some time in advance, require to take place at a time when the reception is operating at its fullest capacity. The timing of routine inter-prison escorts should be examined.
Induction
5.9 Induction is provided by the social inclusion department. Four staff provide induction; run offending behaviour programmes; manage community placements; and operate the Links Centre. They work under the direction of one First Line Manager who also has other responsibilities within the prison. In turn, he is part of the team managed by the Inclusion Manager who is responsible for most of the prisoner activities.
5.10 On admission, prisoners are interviewed by reception staff and then go to the Health Centre where initial nurse screening takes place. Admissions are allocated to the Assessment Unit in Ailsa Hall which has 26 spaces split between the cellular accommodation, one three-person unit and one two-person unit. The two multi-occupancy units tend to be used for those deemed to be vulnerable or at risk. It is a feature of Greenock that those subject to the ACT to Care procedures are, as far as possible, co-located in these units in order to provide an element of company and supervision. The units have CCTV cameras which can be viewed from the Assessment Unit Office which also has windows into each of the areas.
5.11 During admission, prisoners are able to access Phoenix House, Jobcentreplus and APEX, and will be referred to other agencies who attend the prison as required.
5.12 Most prisoners will spend between one and three nights in the Assessment Unit depending on their level of need. They will receive a first night induction interview during which they will be encouraged to attend the induction programme. A list of those with addictions issues is also generated for Phoenix Drug Services to provide initial assessments and referrals. The Unit is staffed by one of two nominated officers who, although they do not work in induction at the same time, have devised a handover and case conference approach. Staff from the Assessment Unit attend and participate in case conferences.
5.13 The Assessment Unit suffers from the same overcrowding as Ailsa Hall generally, and by the fact that one third of its accommodation regularly holds prisoners being kept out of association on protection rather than just those on admission. Despite this, the Assessment Unit impresses as a well run and purposeful part of the prison.
5.14 Prisoners receive induction in the Links Centre where the Core Screening Instrument is used and a Community Integration Plan developed for all prisoners serving over 31 days. The target for completion of this is 72 hours, although it is normally done within 24 to 48 hours. The Inclusion Administrator manages the database for all prisoners. The information from the Core Screening Assessment is added to the database and from this referrals are generated.
5.15 Induction takes place on a Tuesday and a Thursday. The national SPS induction is delivered, additionally an educational assessment ( ALERT) is carried out. In addition to this induction, prisoners are referred to the PTIs for a fitness assessment and PT induction programme to allow them to access the gymnasium.
5.16 Although a Community Integration Plan is provided for all prisoners serving over 31 days there is no system in place for the regular review of these plans to ensure that appropriate referrals have taken place. This should be addressed. Additionally there is no structured pre-release programme within Greenock. This should also be addressed.
5.17 It is a feature of induction/inclusion/throughcare at Greenock that a very small number of people provide many of the services. From the description given it would appear that regular contact takes place but in the form of ad hoc rather than formal meetings. It is important that a clear management structure exists to ensure that both strategic direction and day-to-day operational matters are occurring and that audits take place. It is recommended that a comprehensive review of the management and meetings structure within Rehabilitation and Support takes place.
Sentence Management
5.18 As mentioned elsewhere in this report, long-term prisoners are held in Chrisswell House and Darroch Hall. Chrisswell House is a National facility, holding prisoners serving between four years and life, and who have met the SPS qualifications for admission to a 'top-end'. From Chrisswell it is envisaged that prisoners will continue their preparation for release by a staged programme of exposure to community access, including special escorted home leaves, unescorted visits and opportunities to work in the community in supervised placements. These stages are normally in response to targets, agreed with the Parole Board, or contained in the SPS's internal Sentence Management procedures.
5.19 Prisoners admitted to Chrisswell will receive an initial interview within 24 hours. Normally prisoners coming to Chrisswell will be doing so as part of a planned move and consequently will have had a risk and needs assessment carried out in the sending establishment. In a small number of cases this had not been completed. This should be addressed. Chrisswell maintains the database for all long-term prisoners within Greenock; admissions are logged in the database which then generates targets for the various elements of the Sentence Management Scheme. All eight Chriswell House officers are Risk and Needs Assessment trained and act as Personal Officers. Each month the targets for Risk and Needs Assessments, Action Planning, etc are identified from the central database and allocated for completion. These are subsequently audited by the First Line Manager. Currently, Greenock has 100% compliance with the timescales.
5.20 Darroch Hall holds prisoners serving between four and twelve years, who are either direct admissions to Darroch or prisoners receiving qualifying sentences at court, or transfers in from other prisons who meet the sentence criteria. Darroch started admitting long-term prisoners in August 2005, therefore November was the first month in which Sentence Management targets were identified: 100% compliance with all targets was achieved.
5.21 Examination of a sample of Sentence Management folders showed that these were completed to a good standard. As has been the case in other inspections, some of the targets set for individuals tend not to be particularly challenging. SPS is currently reviewing the Sentence Management process as part of its development of Integrated Case Management. The Inspectorate will pay particular attention to how this is introduced and what impact it may have on setting targets in the future.
5.22 It was noted during the inspection that long-term prisoners were arriving in Chrisswell only for some to move on within a week or so. It is unclear what real value there is in moving a long-term prisoner from a closed prison to a national top-end and then, before any work or assessment is carried out with the individual, he qualifies for a transfer to the Open Estate. It is recommended that the practice of transferring some prisoners to Chrisswell House for very short periods of time is reviewed.
Throughcare
5.23 The Links Centre provides the base for Throughcare. A wide range of internal and external providers use the Centre and there appears to be very good relationships between SPS and non- SPS staff and providers. It was encouraging to note that there is a regular (quarterly) partnership meeting allowing all those who provide services at Greenock a forum for discussion. The inclusion and rehabilitation agenda is directed by the Rehabilitation and Care Group, chaired by the Deputy Governor, which meets quarterly and from this each area of inclusion has sub-meetings as required. These meetings should be formalised.
5.24 The Links Centre itself is located in what was formerly the VT painters workshop and provides an attractive and bright area as a base for agencies. The area upstairs is currently being refurbished in order to provide office and support accommodation.
Life Sentence Prisoners
5.25 By definition, the national top-end holds a high number of life sentence prisoners and at the time of inspection 45 of the 60 prisoners within Chrisswell House were serving life sentences. The result of this is a major requirement on the part of the prison to prepare for, and represent SPS at discretionary life sentence tribunals of the Parole Board (in the past year Greenock has prepared for and represented SPS at 24 tribunals). It is normally the Deputy Governor who is responsible for leading at tribunals. As part of the preparation for the tribunals, the Deputy Governor meets with prisoners and informs them of the content of the prison report. It is felt that this allows the prisoner the opportunity to understand what is being said and have an opportunity to prepare a response. Additionally, the prisoner is taken through the process and is shown the location of the tribunal. This is an area of good practice.
5.26 The casework for long-term prisoners is considered through the monthly Risk Management Group which will consider any issues involving long-term prisoners and lifers, including issues around community placements, upgrades, downgrades, etc. It is at this meeting that decisions are made on managing prisoners and in particular ensuring that they have addressed their offending behaviour. It is noted that some serious offending behaviour needs are not identified at an early stage in some prisoners' sentences, resulting in prisoners who may have been nearing release, being diverted to completing appropriate programmes instead. Such needs should have been identified before transfer to Chrisswell. This detailed scrutiny provides good assurance in respect of managing the risk which individuals may pose. It is recommended that serious offending behaviour needs of life sentence prisoners are addressed at an appropriate point of the sentence.
5.27 For long-term prisoners who qualify, quarterly Special Escorted Leaves ( SEL) can be taken to an approved place: most often the family home. With the introduction of the national escort contract, these leaves are escorted by Reliance Custodial Services staff. Previously SPS staff, often Personal Officers, carried out these escorts and were able to observe individuals and meet their families. All of this contributed to their knowledge of the long-term prisoners they managed. The RCS staff are required to complete a post SEL Report. Examination of a number of these was carried out and the results were mixed. The reports are mainly factual and can contain as few as 11 words of comment. This provides little information on how an individual may have interacted with family. The content of the post Special Escorted Leave Reports should be improved.
Community Placements
5.28 Greenock is one of the small number of prisons where it is possible for some prisoners to work in the community during the day as part of their preparation for release. After careful risk assessments, life sentence prisoners (who are approaching the end of their sentence) may be given the opportunity to take up a work place or a study place. For prisoners who have spent many years in prison this can be a daunting and testing prospect. This report suggests that there is good evidence that this kind of experience can be very valuable in the development of the social skills and the personal skills - and the skills for employment - which will be needed when people who have spent many years in prison find themselves once more within the community.
5.29 This scheme for community placements works very well in Greenock. The first evidence of that is the inspection of the records which show that very careful risk assessments are made before any prisoner is considered for such a placement and show that great care is taken in preparing the prisoner and the employer for a placement. Moreover, the records show that there is regular support of the placement, both of the employer and of the prisoner, from the prison throughout its life. If there is room for improvement in the scheme it might well be that more time might be made available to strengthen the support of employer and prisoner which the prison is able to give.
5.30 The second evidence of the value of these placements is the evidence of prisoners themselves. Of course prisoners are likely to say that the placements are good, because they would prefer to be outside rather than inside during the day. But the reports which prisoners make on the experience of community placement go far beyond a report that they found it enjoyable. They speak repeatedly of the sense of being trusted, of the sense of growing confidence, of the sense of responsibility which these placements offer to them. The account which prisoners give of the value of placements is corroborated by the prison staff who supervise the placements who are equally clear that prisoners grow in confidence, grow in social skills, grow in self-respect and grow in a sense of responsibility as a result of community placements.
5.31 Perhaps the most striking evidence of the value of these schemes of work in the community is that provided by the employers who participate in the scheme. Inspectors were able to interview such employers and were very struck by the enthusiasm which was conveyed. The range of community placements includes large retail outlets, small charity shops, churches and study opportunities at further education colleges. A cross-section of those supervising the placements were unanimous in their opinions that they were well supported by the prison; that prisoners not only behaved well in the placements but made significant contributions; and that they caused no difficulties with colleagues or with the public. The evidence from those placements was singularly impressive. If such placements make it more likely that life sentence prisoners will be better able to fit into society and make a useful contribution upon release then they make a significant contribution to public safety and should be encouraged. The evidence from Greenock suggests that they make precisely that contribution. From time to time, there is Press interest in such placements, it would be very good if such interest would occasionally stress the benefits to public safety as well as to the prisoners of such placements. It would also be good if the courage of those employers and colleges who make the scheme possible was recognised.
5.32 At the time of this inspection there was some Press publicity which might have been damaging to the scheme. The publicity was about the fact that prisoners were in the process of participating in this kind of preparation release, and not at all about anything which had gone wrong with such a placement. It is easy to see how such publicity might make things very difficult for the placement supervisor and for the prisoner. Inspectors had the opportunity to interview the supervisors involved in the cases and were very reassured by the serious way in which they had, as a result of the publicity, consulted those most likely to come in contact with the prisoners on placement. They, and the Inspectors, were much reassured by the positive determination of the colleagues of the prisoners on the placements that the placements were valuable and should be continued. The supervisors were equally determined that the good work which was taking place in these placements should not be undermined.
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