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5. REINTEGRATION
Outcomes
Appropriate steps are taken to ensure that prisoners are reintegrated safely into the community and where possible into a situation less likely to lead to further crime.
5.1 Partly met. Extended Home Leave and Community Work Placements are the main means of reintegrating prisoners into the community. The Community Placements Scheme is excellent, but there is a lack of proper preparation for EHL's. There is a lack of programmes to address offending behaviour, and no "top up" programmes. Sex offenders receive the worst preparation for release. However, the processes connected to the risk assessment and risk management of prisoners have improved considerably.
Good contact with family and friends is maintained
5.2 Partly met. Extended Home Leaves give prisoners significant periods of time with their families and friends. However, there are very few opportunities for families and prisoners to prepare, together, for the prisoner's return to home life prior to participation in the Extended Home Leave scheme.
5.3 Visiting arrangements within the two establishments are very good and staff are courteous, polite and helpful. There is no formal family strategy in place which encourages family involvement at induction, in addictions, or at other stages of the prisoner's stay in the Open Estate.
Case Studies
5.4 Six case studies were carried out to examine the processes undertaken and paperwork available in relation to assessing risk and preparing prisoners for return to the community. The case studies were based on an examination of files only.
5.5 Paperwork was patchy and disorganised and there was not always a copy of risk assessments, although there might be reference to them. It was not always clear that there was a distinction made between supervision level allocation and risk assessment and management. There was no evidence of robust and consistent risk assessments.
5.6 There was also no evidence to suggest that prisoners were prepared for coming to the Open Estate.
Social Work
5.7 Social workers work closely with officers to deliver Integrated Case Management. There has been a good culture of information sharing between them for that purpose but reductions in the social work service were beginning to adversely affect communication and good relations. SPS staff spoke about inflexibility and communication barriers from social work. Nevertheless SPS staff said that there was still good co-operation from social workers when dealing with ICM.
5.8 The social work service no longer operates a duty system that allows prisoners to see a social worker without an appointment. Information about the referral system at Castle Huntly is contradictory. A notice on the front desk of the Links Centre states that referrals to social work must go through the personal officer. On the other hand, there are self referral forms and a referral post box available. Arrangements at Noranside appear ad hoc. Referral arrangements should be clarified and better publicised.
5.9 The social work unit prepares assessment reports for the Parole Board and risk assessments generally. The unit is also involved in ICM, tribunals and case management board processes. Risk assessment forms RA1 - 4 were in use for assessing general risk of reconviction and causing serious harm. RM2000 and SA07 were also in use (sex offender risk assessment tools).
5.10 As well as assessments, social work staff are involved in one-to-one work with prisoners who have high levels of need with a view to reducing their risk to the community. However, social workers are not involved in group programmes and have little time for traditional welfare work. They liaise with community based social workers in relation to home leaves.
Family Contact
5.11 There is no family policy in place for either Castle Huntly or Noranside. Families are not involved in the induction process at Castle Huntly, or in the orientation following transfer to Noranside. Some prisoners reported that they had not had an opportunity to advise their families that they were being moved to Noranside. There are identified Family Contact Development Officers in place, although all staff are expected to respond to a prisoner's family should the need arise.
5.12 The visits area in Castle Huntly is located in the Links Centre. Outside picnic tables are also available. Vending machines are available for refreshments and prisoners score visits highly in the SPS Prisoner Survey. Approximately 80% of visits booked are taken, and on average, 75 prisoners take visits each week.
5.13 The visits area in Noranside is basic. There are 17 available places, although take up is very low, mainly due to the availability of Extended Home Leaves. In the six weeks prior to the inspection there had not been any more than 15 visits in any one week.
5.14 Telephones are readily available in both Castle Huntly and Noranside.
Extended Home Leave
5.15 Extended Home Leaves of up to seven nights are now an integral part of the Open Estate regime. All prisoners are carefully assessed by the Case Management Board prior to any unescorted community access. Some prisoners, depending on length of sentence and perceived risk and needs, may start with two or three days leave and build up to seven days over a period of time. In addition to the community access risk assessment conducted by the Case Management Board there are regular random drug and alcohol tests pre- and post Home Leaves.
5.16 Some preparation prior to Home Leave includes information on safe sex and license conditions and implications. There are however very few opportunities for families and prisoners to prepare, together, for the prisoner's return to home life prior to participation in the Extended Home Leave scheme. It is recommended that opportunities are provided for families and prisoners to prepare for the Extended Home Leave scheme. Many prisoners spoke of the difficulty returning home for the first Home Leave, particularly those who had served several years. Prisoners spoke also of the difficulty sharing their pre- or post Extended Home Leave concerns: fearing that this may be interpreted as increased risk, resulting in a removal from the scheme or a return to closed conditions. A further frustration was that procedural delays could cause some prisoners to spend up to three months after admission waiting for home leave, despite the fact that some may have had community access from the sending establishment.
5.17 Part of the Home Leave scheme is Continuous Cell Occupancy ( CCO) which was introduced three years ago. This allows maximum occupancy levels to be increased by having cells occupied while other prisoners are on Home Leave. It avoids overcrowding and is now well established and effectively managed.
5.18 The Open Estate staff also process Home Detention Curfew ( HDC) release applications and at the time of the inspection 52 prisoners were subject to a HDC.
Time Banking
5.19 'Time banking' is a process whereby people who have signed up to the scheme can undertake voluntary work and put the time in 'the bank'. This time can then be used to have reciprocal work carried out, or the time can be donated to a 'collective bank' which can be used for community causes.
5.20 Some prisoners at Castle Huntly have signed up to the time banking scheme and earn hours by doing voluntary work such as supporting peers as Samaritan Listeners, Literacy Tutors or working on the prison magazine. The time accrued in Castle Huntly has been sent to projects in Campbeltown and Castlemilk. The prisoners have received positive feedback from the projects where their time has been used. This is an area of good practice.
Interventions to Address Offending Behaviour
5.21 There are only two offending behaviour programmes delivered. These are " SMART Recovery" (an addiction programme) and "A Sense of Balance" (pre-community access programme). The pre-community access programme should be delivered no more than four times per week over a four week period. The drop out rate for this programme is much higher that for the addiction programme due mainly to some participants going on Extended Home Leave. There are no 'top-up' programmes. It is recommended that programmes, and 'top-up' programmes, to address offending behaviour are introduced.
Integrated Case Management
5.22 Integrated Case Management ( ICM) procedures at the Open Estate operate at both Standard and Enhanced levels. Standard is used to support those prisoners serving four years, or less. The Enhanced procedures help support those prisoners serving over four years, and sex offenders serving a sentence of six months or more.
5.23 There are three officers dedicated to ICM and they have access to some shared administrative support. They facilitate approximately 45 case conferences per month across both sites.
5.24 Part of the ICM process is the identification and management of risk. Risk assessments are currently carried out by prison based social workers. Prison officers, where appropriate, should conduct risk assessments jointly with social workers.
5.25 There is a personal officer scheme in place, although there is no record kept of attendance at Case Conferences. This should be addressed. In Noranside, community based social work attendance at Case Conferences is poor.
5.26 Prisoners are offered the opportunity to discuss the content of their ICM dossier with the ICM co-ordinator prior to a Case Conference. Families have attended Case Conferences on approximately seven occasions in the year prior to the inspection.
5.27 The reports provided by work placement providers are not included as part of Integrated Case Management.
5.28 One pre-release case conference in Castle Huntly was observed. The meeting was attended by the prisoner, ICM co-ordinator, prison based and community based social workers and the personal officer. The attendees very effectively addressed the risk areas and reinforced the risk management supports available. The prisoner was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and understood the license conditions.
5.29 An additional ICM database is held by the ICM co-ordinators. Critical ICM information should be available to all service providers and prison staff. This database does not meet that requirement.
5.30 Prison based social workers do not input data directly on to the SPS computerised Prisoner Record System ( PR2) and this should be addressed.
5.31 Apart from isolated instances of some risk assessments not being fully completed on the electronic version, the case management records were of a good standard. It was possible in most cases to open a prisoner's electronic file and follow the risk identification/management process and identify interventions and programmes undertaken.
5.32 Risk assessment, identification and risk management strategies should be dealt with as part of the ICM process. At the Open Estate there is an additional layer of risk assessment conducted by the Case Management Board ( CMB). This board conducts all community access risk assessments and also acts as secondary assurance on the risk assessments conducted by the sending establishments. New risk assessment procedures at the sending establishments were reported as being much more effective than previously, resulting in a better prisoner match with the Open Estate regime. Consideration should be given to bringing the work of the Case Management Board into the Integrated Case Management process. Although risk can never be completely eliminated the focus given to this very important aspect of offender management at the Open Estate now ensures that every effort is made to reduce risk to an acceptable level. The processes connected to the risk assessment and risk management of prisoners have improved considerably.
5.33 There is no formal involvement of the Chaplaincy Team in pre-release activities, although the Team is represented on the Case Management Board which assesses risk and approves community access for prisoners.
Community Placements
5.34 An impressive range of community work placements is available and are matched to prisoner skills and personal preference. For some prisoners these lead to permanent employment on release. The Extended Home Leave scheme presents a challenge to work and college placement continuity but not one that is insurmountable.
5.35 Sex offenders have the least choice of community placements. At the time of the inspection there were two sex offenders in Noranside, neither of whom was on a placement. MAPPA processes are not formally activated prior to a community placement but the establishment risk management group meets with police, social work and other affected parties prior to a high risk offender being placed. The effective assessment of risk prior to placing a sex offender temporarily in the community is critical.
5.36 Previous reports have made very positive observations about the operational running and management of placements. The same applies to this inspection.
5.37 Castle Huntly provides up to 120 placement opportunities for prisoners. Noranside has 30. Seventy five companies offer a work placement. Prisoners are selected following a referral process and a set of structured interviews, both within the prison and latterly with the employer. At the time of inspection there were no prisoners attending a local Further Education College. This is in stark contrast to the situation at previous inspections.
5.38 During the inspection, visits were made to three of Castle Huntly's placements and two of Noranside's placements. The feedback from these was extremely positive, with prisoners being well integrated into the workforce, and often dealing directly with the public. Prisoners confirmed that the placements were of real value to them, and one had already secured a job similar to one he was carrying out on placement for his release.
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