ANNEX 1

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The NIC was created following a recommendation which was contained in the ‘Small Units in the Scottish Prison Service Report’ which was published in October 1994.

The Working Party had originally been given terms of reference to carry out a wide-ranging review of the Barlinnie Special Unit but two additional recommendations contained in the report of the 1994 inspection of HM Unit Shotts were then added, viz:-

* To review the role of the Advisory Committee on Prisoner Management in the selection of prisoners for Units.

* There should be a proper and formal system of challenging the offending behaviour which each individual displayed prior to and, in many cases, during imprisonment and agreement to participate in such a system should be included as a prerequisite to acceptance into the Unit.

The Working Party’s research led them to the view that "it might be possible to reduce the need for small units by offering an early intervention to those who seem most likely to experience grave coping difficulties." That led to the recommendation on the establishment of a facility for the induction of all prisoners serving 10 years or more, including life sentence prisoners, and those long-term prisoners serving less than 10 years where it was considered that a period in such a facility would be helpful.

The Working Party recommended that the philosophy and ethos of the NIC should be in keeping with the Mission of the SPS. It was to be closely aligned to the opportunity and responsibility agenda, with Sentence Planning Management to be at the core of regime delivery and service provision. To achieve these objectives, the Working Party recommended:-

* A setting which was more supportive and more flexible than ordinary prison settings.

* A regime which offered extensive opportunities for addressing psychological difficulties and developing relevant coping strategies supported by active staff encouragement to maximise these opportunities.

* Mutually agreed Sentence Plans between individual prisoners and their Personal Officers, underpinned and guided by detailed needs profiling - and where appropriate, formalised risk/needs analyses and structured assessments.

* The establishment of a behaviour profiling system targeted at the behaviour of disruptive prisoners with a view to identifying the most appropriate type of regime and future location to meet their needs.

* The opportunity for prisoners to participate in formal peer support groups, facilitated by Prison Officers, to debate specific issues relating to offending behaviour.

In addition to those principles, the Working Party recommended that a number of objectives should be adopted properly to align and integrate the purpose and role of the NIC within the existing long term mainstream provision:-

* Normal Prison Rules and Operating Standards would apply.

* Each prisoner should spend a minimum of six and a maximum of twelve months in the Induction Centre.

* Transfers from the Induction Centre to the designated long term establishment should be in accordance with the principles of Sentence Planning.

* Those prisoners who could still not cope with the mainstream, should be channelled directly into the Shotts or Peterhead Units for more intensive work.

Finally, the Working Party, in recognition of the particular purpose and role proposed for the NIC and the key role of staff in delivery, further recommended:-

* Psychiatric services should be provided on a needs only basis. A full-time psychologist should also be available.

* There should be a detailed role and person specification for all staff posts including specialists.

* NIC staff should undergo a one-month probationary period and should have successfully completed a recognised first level counselling skills course.

* NIC staff should receive comprehensive and regular training set initially at 10 days per person per year for refresher and development training.

* An expectation that information will be shared with all NIC staff should be built into all prisoner contracts. Acceptance that information would be shared should be a non-negotiable element of the prisoner’s personal contract.

* The general principle which should guide the use of predictive risk information held by the NIC’s specialist staff should be that this information is passed on only to the specialist staff in the receiving establishment. This was to allow them to be aware of any possible difficulties which the prisoner may encounter; only where the predictive risk information had implications for security should this be passed on to other relevant SPS staff, such as the receiving establishment Management, or to the Head of Operations.