Angry judge calls Ranby prison ‘the most incompetent in the country’
SENTENCING IS ADJOURNED AFTER VIDEO LINK CONFUSION OVER DEFENDANT’S WHEREABOUTS
A JUDGE has described Nottinghamshire prison HMP Ranby as “the most incompetent in the country”, saying its governor “could not run a cafe presently” after it failed to produce a convicted masked gang member for his sentence.
Judge Stuart Rafferty KC expressed his frustration after “reluctantly” adjourning a sixhander sentence at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday.
He apologised to family and friends of the defendants and the victim in the packed public gallery, who have all been waiting months to find out the outcome of a serious case involving a Bulwell teenager who was stabbed in his own home in front of his mother.
All of the defendants – two from Nottingham, two from Birmingham and two from Northamptonshire – were expecting to be sentenced but one of them appeared over a video-link from HMP Nottingham having been transferred there the day before from HMP Ranby.
But on Thursday morning, both prisons initially denied he was at either of their establishments until he appeared over the link from HMP Nottingham.
Adjourning until April, Judge Rafferty said: “(On that date) all defendants will be produced, whether they are in Nottingham, Ranby, Lincoln or Timbuktu. Prisons must realise they are not doing the courts a favour allowing people to appear over CVP (the courts video-link system), it’s absolutely scandalous.
“They are the tail and not the dog (and) Ranby is the most incompetent prison in the country. It’s about time the Governor should respond, I am not sure he could run a cafe presently.
“This case will be heard on April 12, there will be no further delays and no further adjournment. I apologise to the defendants and I apologise to those in the public gallery.”
The defendant on the link then told the hearing he had been moved from Ranby to Nottingham the day before. Judge Rafferty said: “HMP Nottingham said you were not there this morning, they denied you were there.”
HMP Ranby, near Retford, is a category C prison which holds around 1,000 male prisoners. In the most recent inspectorate report, from 2022, key findings included that new arrivals were treated well and levels of violence behind bars had “fallen considerably” since the previous inspection in 2018. But the 2022 report also said “time out of cell for many prisoners was extremely poor, at a little over an hour a day.”
After the Post spoke to the Ministry of Justice for a statement or comment, a Prison Service spokesperson said: “Over 99% of the approximately 250,000 prisoners brought to court each year arrive on time. Serious incidents of failure are individually investigated and suppliers are held to account when found responsible.”