Build a rapport with convicts, jail staff told

PRISON OFFICERS should have their job descriptions changed to include a requirement to strike up “personal relationships” with prisoners, a new report commissioned by the Government has recommended.

The landmark review said that prison officers must build a rapport with prisoners as part of a wider push to reduce reoffending rates.

Conservative MPS criticised the plan as they suggested it sounded as though prisoners were being offered their own “personal nanny” and insisted prison should be for punishment.

The report, undertaken by Lord Farmer, advocates placing family relationships at the heart of prison reform. Research has shown that prisoners who receive visits from loved ones are 39 per cent less likely to reoffend.

The review recommends that those imprisoned away from their families should be transferred to the closest prison “at the earliest opportunity” and that Skype-style video calls should be made available for people who cannot visit frequently. It also praises an existing programme that allows prisoners to record themselves reading bedtime stories, which can then be played to their children at home.

The report recommends: “Personal officer job descriptions must include developing personal relationships with their prisoners and their training must reverse the de-skilling that has prevented many from undertaking informal support for prisoners’ family ties.”

Christopher Chope, the Conservative MP for Christchurch, said: “I think the idea of having prisoners in locations where it is easier for the family to go and visit them, I am all in favour of that.

“But the idea of prisoners having their own personal nanny among the prison staff doesn’t strike a chord with me.

“If you are in prison it is a punishment.”

The Government is already in the process of rolling out a “personal officer” offender management model which will see each prison officer tasked with managing the caseload of six offenders.