Problems at prison revealed in report
Reporter ROCKETING violence, “easy” access to drugs and a string of suicides have been revealed at a troubled North East jail.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons found around three in every five prisoners at HMP Northumberland said it was easy to obtain illicit drugs, while one in five revealed that they had acquired a drug habit since entering the jail.
The inspections, which took place in July and August, discovered that there were six self-inflicted deaths at the jail in the last three years, but few of the shortcomings identified during the investigations had been addressed.
They also found that there was a “clearly unacceptable” failure by staff at the private prison, which is run by Sodexo, to assess the risk released prisoners posed to the public. Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said the leadership team had a wide range of strategies in place to tackle these and other problems “but many of them had yet to achieve their desired effect”.
But staff at the Acklington jail were praised for programmes a residential unit was running for older inmates, such as activities for over-50s.
Inspectors said it was obvious that the men valued the opportunity to be among their peers and away from what they described as “the noise, violence and drugs”.
Findings by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons released yesterday show:
Violence had more than doubled since the previous inspection in 2014.
58% of prisoners had felt unsafe at some time – a significantly higher figure than at similar prisons and the last inspection.
Few of the shortcomings identified by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s investigations into the six self-inflicted deaths since 2014 had been addressed.
61% of inmates said it was easy or very easy to obtain illicit drugs in the jail.
21% of prisoners said they had acquired a drug habit since entering the prison.
Inspectors were particularly concerned that 59% of inmates covered by multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) to assess risk and protect the public were being released without confirmation of their MAPPA level.
There were also serious concerns about some aspects of medicines management.
Mr Clarke said: “There was a very clear determination on the part of the director and leadership of the prison to make improvements and a palpable energy and enthusiasm about their wish to do so.
“It is to their credit that there were a wide range of plans and strategies in place, but many of them had yet to achieve their desired effect.
“HM Inspectorate of Prisons is often encouraged to believe that, if we had inspected an establishment a few months later than we actually did, we would have seen significant improvements.
“This report conveys our actual findings at the time of the inspection. It may well be that the plans we were told about will, in due course, lead to improvement, and this may happen at HMP Northumberland. It is to be hoped that this will be the case.”
Michael Spurr, chief executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, said Nick Leader, the director at the Acklington jail, had taken firm action to drive forward progress at the prison.
Mr Spurr added: “Since the report, the prison has set up a team to specifically review the prison’s management of violence and additional safer custody staff will also help improve the prison’s self-harm response.”
In February this year, the prison was the subject of a Panorama investigation which revealed prison staff fearing for their safety at work and the impact drugs such as spice were having at the jail. The Howard League for Penal Reform said the report shows privatising the jail had been an “abject failure” for the public.
Frances Crook, the organisation’s chief executive, said: “Seven years ago, Northumberland had 441 frontline staff. The number was cut to 270 in preparation for privatisation.
“Today, it is down to 192 staff, trying to run a prison that is holding more than 1,300 men. This was a disaster waiting to happen.”
An HMP Northumberland spokesperson said: “Following the inspector’s visit in July, we have continued to implement the strategies and plans that we had initiated prior to the inspection and we immediately developed an additional action plan to address the issues raised.
“We continue to work hard to tackle drugs and violence, which are a challenge across the whole prison estate. Also as a priority, we have significantly improved our public protection processes and are working more effectively with probation services.”