Prisoners urged to help forge ‘sense of community’
Moves to create ‘culture based on mutual respect’ following reports of poor staff-inmate relations
INMATES at a high-security prison containing some of Britain’s most dangerous criminals have been invited to sit on “citizen panels” to improve their treatment and the way the jail is run.
Eight prisoners at HMP Belmarsh in south-east London are being recruited on to a joint panel with officers to advise governor Jenny Louis on ways to create “a sense of community” and “culture based on mutual respect”.
The “active citizen panels” – run by the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) charity – aims to tackle poor staff-offender relations identified by inspectors by asking the prisoners for solutions.
However, critics have questioned whether they are appropriate for a prison like Belmarsh, which has held prisoners such as child killer Ian Huntley, hate preacher Anjem Choudary, Michael Adebolajo, the killer of soldier Lee Rigby, and black cab rapist John Worboys. Two terrorists behind bombings on Manchester Arena and a train at Parsons Green – Hashem Abedi, and Ahmed Hassan – were convicted last month of attacking a prison guard in Belmarsh.
Ian Acheson, a former governor and ex-government adviser on extremism, said: “It’s difficult to argue with any initiative that aims to improve life in a prison. However, this is a high-security prison with a track record of serious problems with risk-management and high-profile attacks on staff.
“A ‘community of equals’ approach in this context will baffle the public and create ambiguity in that vital and necessarily unequal relationship. Ceding more power to prisoners in the name of rehabilitation is superficially attractive but tends not to end well.”
But Peter Dawson, PRT’s chief executive, said the scheme was focused on the 90 per cent of prisoners outside the highest security parts of the jail and followed an HMI inspection that highlighted problems in the relationships and lack of mutual respect between staff and inmates.
“A high-security jail has a bit more distance between staff and prisoners because of the security. It is a very buttoned-up environment which makes it more difficult to make relationships, especially with those people in for offences that are not terrorism,” he said.
“It’s a good thing how prisoners can contribute to making prisons a more constructive place to live. It’s also teaching good habits for when you come out. The other practical thing is that we think prisoners have good ideas.”
At Belmarsh, two panels – one of prisoners, one of staff – will be set up before coming together with recommendations to the governor.
The Ministry of Justice said all prisoner applicants for panels would be vetted by staff and the governor and her senior would decide what recommendations were implemented, not prisoners.