November 2012 Issue 106 INDEPENDENT MONIT OR THE ASSOCIATION OF MEMBERS OF INDEPENDENT MONITORING BOARDS MARTIN NAREY EXCLUSIVE SEX OFFENDERS’ FAMILIES PENAL POLITICS EDITORIAL CONTENTS few days before this Monitor went to press came AMIMB 3 some startling news from Noms. ‘A new approach to Angela Clay drive efficiency and cost reduction in public sector 30 years on 4 A prisons’ is how Justice Secretary Chris Grayling Martin Narey described it. It was a mixed bag. The bad news for the Prison Service was that it will lose Northumberland prison (Acklington HMIP reports 7 Helen Banks and Castington prisons before they were clustered last year) as well as the South Yorkshire group of Lindholme, Hatfield and Telling stories 8 Moorland. The next stage of the competition for private Writer in residence Jessica Berens contracts to run them will involve Serco, Sodexo and Trouble ahead? 9 MTC/Amey – but no gold medal possibility for G4S: it’s been Rod Morgan disqualified from the race. G4S are also losing The Wolds, which rather dramatically will Koestler awards 10 return to the public sector next July, but in a cluster with They won’t know we’re coming 11 Everthorpe. And Coldingley, Durham and Onley prisons will HMCIP Nick Hardwick not be privatised after all. The bids from the private sector were Sentence mismanagement 12 ‘less convincing’ according to Noms boss Michael Spurr. This Bob Knowles was a surprise to the City, where private custody sector share prices slumped. A view from the Ivory Tower 15 On the other hand, big business must be rubbing its hands at Carol Hedderman what is perhaps the most significant bit of news in all this. The Back inside 16 government is to adopt a new cost-saving plan that the Prison Simon Creighton Service has been working on. Michael Spurr describes it as a ‘competition model…involving retaining core custodial What can I do next? 17 functions in the public sector, with private and third sector Emma Wicken partners delivering ancillary and resettlement services.’ A black sheep in the family 18 Given that perilous revolution, it now makes sense that one of Sarah Salmon Chris Grayling’s first announcements as the new secretary of state was to suspend some pilot payment-by-results projects in The politics of justice 19 order to ‘reconsider’ the strategy. David Faulkner So of course it’s all about money. Not decency, not better Last word 20 resettlement, just money. Because the government dumped Ken Clarke and his modest plans for reform, the prison population won’t come down. So no more prison closures, no £130m Cover: Can a Leopard Change His Spots? HMP savings. And there’s another unexpected £35m bill for problems Wellingborough, Rethinking Recycling Bronze with computer projects. Yet Noms has a £246m savings target Koestler Award this year and £884m to save by 2015. If the MoJ budget fails, it’s their problem. If prisons fail, it’s everyone’s. Photos from Andrew Aitchison Association of Members of Independent Monitoring Boards • amimb.org.uk Registered charity number 293384 Membership of AMIMB is open to serving members of IMBs in prisons Patron Lord Phillips, Supreme Court President and immigration removal centres in England and Wales. Associate President Baroness Vivien Stern membership is open to anyone interested in penal affairs. Vice-President Michael Watson MBE (IMB Preston) AMIMB represents board members by presenting their views wherever [email protected] they need to be known. AMIMB campaigns for change, both through its own efforts and by liaising with other groups, including via the Criminal Chair Angela Clay (East Sutton Park) Justice Alliance. Membership of AMIMB allows board members to have [email protected] a say in the direction of boards and penal policy generally. Treasurer Jenny Budgell (Ashfield) [email protected] Annual subscription to AMIMB is £20. Join online at Natural Numbers Ltd, Syms Yard, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN14 6LH amimb.org.uk or complete the form on page 19. 01249 660035 Independent Monitor Other executive committee members David Atkinson (Dovegate) [email protected] Editor Helen Boothman, [email protected] Brian Guthrie (Norwich) [email protected] Secretary (Littlehey) Field House, Thrandeston, Diss, Norfolk IP21 4BU • 01379 783678 Gordon Cropper, Vice-chair (Pentonville) [email protected] Views expressed in the Independent Monitor are not necessarily Christopher Padfield (Bedford) [email protected] those of AMIMB. Michael Peacock (Gartree) [email protected] ISSN 1746–1197 AMIMB From the chair that our members’ opinions were divided over the ruling but all agreed that it was wrong to impose the ruling without proper consultation. I leave you to decide what the reply said about individual members (the full letter is on our website): ‘The President of the National Council has strongly represented the concerns of members to sponsoring departments and the office for the Commissioner for Public Appointment and has been directly involved in negotiating a series of exceptional arrange - ments that reflect the unique nature of IMBs. I therefore regard due consultation as having taken place.’ National Council I met Secretriat head Mick Robins and NC vice-chair Chris Davies to discuss the reasons for the NC’s decision to suspend liaison arrangements with AMIMB. But it’s still unclear. They cited details about our minutes and also the fact that we were carrying out Lord David Ramsbotham at AMIMB’s some research on sex offenders but this did conference not make any sense. We have continued to Angela Clay ask for clarification and to offer the hand of women in custody. If you have a special friendship in resolving the issue. Peter Selby interest in any of these subjects, please AMIMB’s 2012 AGM and conference were declined our invitation to our AGM as he felt contact me or one of the executive held again on the banks of the Thames at that it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to committee with your views. Glaziers Hall. We heard some excellent attend but he did say: ‘I do stress that what A final thought from Eric McGraw, editor speakers: Lord David Ramsbotham (who has been suspended is our previous means of of Inside Time : ‘You may have seen the was withering about Noms and not much liaison, and that I am hopeful that a way of October issue of Inside Time and my inter - kinder about David Cameron), Hindpal improving things can be found.’ Although view with Peter Selby. You will see that I am Bhui (foreign nationals specialist in HMIP), still somewhat in the dark, we hope that this concerned that large numbers of prisoners Lucy Bogue (ex-IMB, now Noms and a spir - may signal a light at the end of a rather long say they have no idea who the IMB are.’ ited defender of it), Nikhil Roy (Penal tunnel. Would you challenge this statement as it Reform International), John Samuels (Pris - applies to the establishment you monitor or oners Education Trust), Kerry Boffey (Adult IMB issues could we do more to raise awareness of who Learning Network) and Mike Kirby (Noms AMIMB is currently looking at prisoner we are and what we do, among those pris - again). You will find some of this on voting, sex offenders, foreign nationals and oners and detainees we monitor? amimb.org.uk. We also presented the first of the AMIMB awards, for members who highlighted initia - AMIMB award winners – extracts tives in prisons. We had six good entries: two ‘The SMS Team at Kirkham has worked hard to identify and train up a large number of were from Stafford (their GBT unit came recovery champions – prisoners who work as peer supporters alongside the staff team to third), one each from East Sutton Park and offer help, advice and support to those seeking or already achieving recovery, and this type Hollesley Bay, and the two winners – of mutual aid is the basis for many of the services within the team including speaking to new Kirkham’s substance misuse recovery week prisoners on their induction to the prison, the facilitation of groupwork sessions and (reported by the IMB’s Maria Desmond) training for staff around substance use, addiction and recovery.’ and Dartmoor’s diversity centre (Sue ‘The Diversity Centre at Dartmoor , run by a team of three dedicated officers, has evolved White). from an older prisoners over-50s club, into a programme supporting other less able members of the prison community, and is an example of good practice. First timers, poor Tenure copers, may be someone on an ACCT, prisoners with disabilities, or a foreign national Following our member survey about the 15- facing an uncertain future, are some of the prisoners offered the opportunity to attend the year tenure rule, we wrote to the minister for Diversity Centre.’ the cabinet office, Frances Maude, to say Independent Monitor • November 2012 3 PERSONAL POLITICAL HISTORY want to reflect on three areas which have been of particular significance since I joined the Prison Service in 1982 as a naïve but idealistic trainee Igovernor. They are violence in prisons, the emergence of management, and the lost opportunity of population control. I joined the Prison Service pretty much by accident. It was never something I planned (and when recruiting people to join later in my career I was always troubled by any young person who told me that working in prisons was something they had always wanted to do). After graduating in public administration in the late seventies I went to work in the NHS – something I had planned to do – and spent five happy years in hospital management. In 1981 I was managing a small group of hospitals in Lincolnshire and my wife and I had our first child.