1
HMP FORD
Independent Monitoring Board
ANNUAL REPORT
November 2013 to October 2014
To the Rt. Hon. Christopher Grayling MP
Secretary of State for Justice
Section 1
Statutory Role of the IMB
Monitoring fairness and respect for people in Custody
The Prisons Act 1952 and the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 require every prison and IRC to be monitored by an independent Board appointed by the Secretary of State from members of the community in which the prison or centre is situated.
The Board is specifically charged to:
(1) satisfy itself as to the humane and just treatment of those held in custody within its prison and the range and adequacy of the programmes preparing them for release,
(2) inform promptly the Secretary of State, or any official to whom he has delegated authority, as it judges appropriate, any concern it has,
(3) report annually to the Secretary of State on how well the prison has met the standards and requirements placed on it and what impact these have on those in its custody.
To enable the Board to carry out these duties effectively its members have right of access to every prisoner and every part of the prison and also to the prison's records.
Section 2 Contents
Section 1: Statutory Role of the IMBPage 2
Section 2:ContentsPage 3
Section 3:Description of the PrisonPage 4
Section 4:Executive SummaryPage 5
Section 5:Mandatory Topics
Equality & InclusionPage 7
Education Learning & SkillsPage 8
Healthcare & Mental HealthPage 9
Purposeful activityPage 10
ResettlementPage 11
Safer CustodyPage 12
SegregationPage 13
Residential ServicesPage 13
Section 6:Other Topics
SecurityPage 15
Section 7:
Work of the IMBPage 16
Board statisticsPage 17
IMB ApplicationsPage 18
Section 3 Description of the prison
HM Prison Ford is a Category D Open establishment with an emphasis on resettlement. It was converted to an open prison in 1960 from a former Fleet Air Arm station. It is situated 3 miles south of Arundel in West Sussex and covers an area of 110 acres bisected by a busy Class B public road.
The open estate is required to cater for all Category D prisoners assessed as suitable for open conditions within the criteria agreed between the Governor and the Area Manager. Prisoners selected for transfer to Ford should present a low risk of absconding and a low risk to the public. The operational capacity is 539 male offenders, nearly half of whom are lifers, indeterminate sentence prisoners or MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements) cases.
The accommodation comprises single and two-person rooms. There is accommodation for fifteen prisoners with some degree of disability.
Healthcare is provided by the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
Education and Training are provided by Manchester College and the National Careers Service.
There are also opportunities for offenders to work or be trained with DHL, LMB Recycling, British Institute of Cleaning Science, World of Books and the Ministry of Defence. Also the prison runs a large market-gardeningenterprise, engineering, carpentryand injection moulding workshops and a laundry.
Voluntary organisations providing assistance to prisoners include the Samaritans, The Citizens Advice Bureau, The Terence Higgins Trust, Positive Lunch, The Gypsy and Travellers Community Support Team and Relate.
All available spaces at Ford are offered to the Prison Service's Population Management Section.
Section 4. Executive summary
The changes imposed on all prisons this year have been relentless. The Board is happy to report however that despite the current staff shortages and the upheaval caused by the changes to the rules regarding Release On Temporary Licence (ROTL), our viewis that the establishment has had a satisfactory year.
Following a small number of high profile absconds from open prisons early in the reporting period, changes to the rules on ROTL were introduced nationally. Unfortunately this was done in a rush, before a new Prison Service Instruction had been fully evolved. As a consequence, the interpretation of the new rules was modified repeatedly, causing confusion and real difficulty for both offenders and staff. (ref: para 5.23)
The Board takes the view that ROTL is an integral part of the resettlement process and the intention behind the new rules, making temporary release more closely related to a prisoner’s resettlement plan, is sensible. Our concerns were about the way the changes were implemented. It remains to be seen what effect the revised ROTL arrangements will have on the resettlement of offenders and the Board will continue to monitor the outcomes where it can.
The Board welcomes the fact that the risk assessment process which determines whether an offender is suitable for open conditions is being more rigidly applied. (ref: para 6.1 ). We believe that this, combined with a firm approach to returning offenders to closed conditions if they commit further offences at HMP Ford should greatly reduce the risks associated with releasing offenders on temporary licence.
The management at HMP Ford has worked hard to keep offenders informed of changes, and offenders have in the most part shown remarkable understanding of the situation.
This has all placed a heavy burden on the Offender Management Unit, which despite staff shortages has handled the situation relativelywell.
As a result of MoJ cost-cutting in recent years, levels of staffing have been reduced. There are now staff shortages right across this establishment, as well as others. At the end of the reporting period, HMP Ford was still obliged to send staff to cover in other prisons while having to cope with 20 vacancies of its own in a total establishment workforce of 152. Efforts are being made to recruit, but this level of shortage had a significant impact on existing members of staff.
The Board is concerned that problems with personal property are a source of considerable grievance to many offenders. When they are transferred from one establishment to another, their property is frequently lost, left behind or sent to the wrong prison. The efficient control of prisoners’ property is a major problem across the whole prison estateand the Board would like to see NOMS taking urgent steps to address the issues.
The Board has againrepeated the need for the accommodation in B wing (the old Fleet Air Arm buildings) to be refurbished (ref: paras 5.34, 5.35) and is pleased that at the end of the reporting period fresh steps were being taken to carry out some of the necessary work.
Andrew Isaac
Chairman
Independent Monitoring Board
HMP Ford
Section 5
Equality and Inclusion
5.1 The Equalities and Inclusion Department at HMP Ford takes all forms of Equalities seriously and the Board is satisfied that there are no major issues.
5.2 A quarterly meeting is held where representatives of all the relevantprisoner groups (disabled, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation) have an opportunity to air concerns. Issues raised are openly discussed and any agreed actions are monitoredby staff. The Samaritans are represented at these meetings by their Listener orderly.
5.3 Any racist incidents or concerns about equality are logged and followed up at the regular meetings. Towards the end of the year considerable work was done revising the local policy and introducing procedures for registering concerns electronically, which should greatly enhance the ability of the staff to track progress on any incident and identify any trends which emerge. The document also covers the arrangements for evacuation of disabled prisoners in the case of an emergency. The Board is pleased with this progress.
5.4 A statistical population analysis in mid-August listed
262 White British offenders
208 BME offenders.
12 Foreign Nationals.
38.6 years was the average age of the offender population.
4 offenders were over 70.
20 offenders aged 60 to 69.
61offenders aged 50 to 59.
9 offenders had served in the Armed Forces.
Education, Learning & Skills
5.5 Education services at HMP Ford are provided by Manchester College. Offenders are assessed at induction to see what skills could be developed that might lead to employment on release. Education at Ford can be supplemented by assistance with applications for courses and training beyond the prison gates.
5.6 The regime of the prison allows for offenders to attend courses on a part-time basis, up to a maximum of five sessions a week. A total of 13,500 hours of classes are delivered per annum. 20 courses can lead to regulated qualifications. Approximately 140 students attend classes each week in the Education Block and in purpose built workshops, such as Carpentry and Painting & Decorating. There is a ‘Coffee Shop’ staffed by a handful of prisoners which provides training in Food Preparation and Barista duties. NVQ 1 Catering is delivered in 2 sessions in the main kitchen, where learners are employed full time.
5.7Between August 2013 and July 2014,14% of new arrivals were identified as being at entry level in literacy and 20% at entry level in numeracy. There is provision for all offenders to access embedded literacy and numeracy support from workshop classrooms across the prison, providing opportunities for men who would not otherwise attend a formal class in the Education Department.
5.8The Prisons ICT Academy (PICTA)has a dedicated training workshop at Ford which provides courses in computer technology and networking. Unfortunately it was unable to function for several months this yearbecause of a security breach at national level. The closure of PICTA had serious consequences for the offenders who were in the last stages of gaining important IT qualifications. Some textbook based training and exam-taking resumed in August.
5.9Training is provided in workshops run by the prison’s commercial partners DHL and World of Books which can offer offenders the potential of work experience with the companies and outside employment in the last 12 months of the sentence.
5.10 The Board’s view is that education and training is an essential part of the programme to reduce re-offending. The previously reported concerns of some Manchester College staff about the way they are managed remains an issue.
Healthcare and Mental Health
5.11 Healthcare and Drugs and Alcohol Recovery Team (DART) services are provided by the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT). These arrangements appear to work well. Specifically, the DART team have found that the new arrangements, being part of a wider health care team, have been useful.
5.12The healthcare service is primary care based, there being no inpatient facilities. Around 10,000 appointments a year are provided, including with an onsite dentist and optician. There are currently no Cognitive Behaviour Therapy services although a new service provider for this is being sought.
5.13Waiting times for dentistry were reported as high last year and great efforts have been made to reduce these. Currently waiting times are between 3 and 5 weeks but if a backlog builds up extra sessions are arranged. An emergency service is also available.
5.14All health records apart from dental are held on the national Offenders Health Care Records System and so all health records are available immediately when prisoners arrive at Ford, which allows for continuity of care. Consideration is being given to Ford dental records being included on this database too.
5.15Good health is promoted through programmes for smoking cessation, health access to the gym and liaison with catering. There is a need for a more formal strategy however, which is in the early definition stage.
5.16It is gratifying to note that the healthcare service is well received by users; the Board seldom hears an uncomplimentary comment and the department’s annual satisfaction survey was very favourable. 92% of respondents were satisfied with services, 97% felt they were treated with respect and dignity. The DARTS service has also received positive feedback through its user forum.
Purposeful Activity
5.17All offenders are involved in a purposeful activity of some kind, education or work, the prison aiming to provide every offender with a structured day similar to what he would experience in the community.
5.18 On an average day in October 2014, 49 were out on Community Service, 25 on work experience that can lead to paid employment, 22 out at paid work and 16 at outside education. This is very similar to last year. Their first work placements in the community are unpaid – working in charity shops is common. Offenders must do community service work for 60 days before they can apply for paid work outside. Staff put a lot of effort into finding local employers who will give work to offenders. Many offenders also find paid work for themselves through personal contacts or through a ‘virtual campus’ in the prison. Places of employment are checked by prison staff before an offender can start work. The time this takes has improved over previous years with police checks taking 10-14 days and a visit by an officer to check health & safety requirements around 7 days. Although there are uniformed staff allocated to this area, the demand of other operational duties means there is seldom a full number available.
5.19The prisoners’ Canteen service is run by DHL which provides skilled work for offenders. There are other work placements with BICS (industrial cleaning training), World of Books, waste management and recycling, engineering, injection moulding (poppies for the British Legion), horticulture, carpentry, painting & decorating, laundry, and the prison kitchen. Some of these workshops also service other prisons. A new tool-packing contract was obtained with the MoD but although workshops were modified and equipment installed the work had hardly started by the end of the reporting period. Many of the work placements can lead to formal qualifications.
5.20Offenders are also engaged in work parties refurbishing residential blocksand working as departmental orderlies.
Resettlement
5.21Preparing offenders for re-integration into the community is a Category D prison’s primary role and we believe that HMP Ford continues to do it reasonably effectively within the limits of its resources, by providing prisoners with work and education opportunities outside the prison.
5.22Every month there are around 2,500 releases on temporary licence (ROTLs), i.e. man-days outside the prison, for community service, work placements, education or family contact. Of those an average ofbetween 2 and 4 prisoners don’t return when they should or abscond, which is a failure rate per month of less than 0.2% of man-days spent by offenders in the community.
5.23This year the resettlement process in prisons has been subject to a major government-driven review, prompted by media coverage of a few high-profile cases nationally where offenders committed violent crimes while on temporary release from prisons or after absconding. Under the review, unspecified ‘town visits’ were no longer allowed. Prisoners now need to provide evidence that a day release would satisfy a specific objective identified in their individual resettlement plan, rather than just being a ‘day out’. This tightening up of the risk management of temporary release is clearly to be welcomed, but the introduction of it created a considerable amount of additional administrative work for the Offender Management Unit (OMU) which manages the prisoners’ sentence planning, placing a great strain on staff. It is to their credit that the unhappiness amongst prisoners resulting from the tightening up of ROTL procedures was contained reasonably effectively. Staff from the Governor downwards made great efforts to keep prisoners informed as the new policy evolved, a process that entailed repeated updates and amendments to the rules and procedures. Drop-in sessions at the OMU were held for offenders wanting clarification of their own ROTL prospects.
5.24The monthly total of ROTLs has decreased this year in comparison with the previous year. In September 2013 the total was 3,553. In September 2014 it had fallen to 2,451, a reduction of about 30%. A third of that fall can be accounted for by a decline in prisoner numbers at Ford by about 10%. It’s not clear whether the rest of the reduction is related to the tightening up of the ROTL criteria.
5.25In last year’s report we noted that some prisoners were arriving at Ford without current OASyS (Offender Assessment System) security assessment documents. That situation has been rectified and at the end of the reporting period there were no prisoners at Ford with an out-of-date OASyS.
5.26Also in last year’s report we noted that HMP Ford did not have in place an action plan for Reducing Re-offending. The matter was re-addressed this year but development of the plan was hampered by the drawn-out restructuring of the sentence-management and community resettlement teams. At the end of the reporting period a new process was about to be launched, whereby each prisoner at Ford would play a more active part in developing his own resettlement plan.
Safer Custody
5.27A Safer Custody audit at the end of March 2013 gave HMP Ford a good rating, which we noted in last year’s IMB Annual Report. In this reporting year, however, we have noticed that standards were allowed to slip, with a weakening in the proactive management of the department. We were glad to see that in October 2014 matters were being taken in hand again with the drafting of a new Safer Custody Local Operating Procedure. Efforts were also being made to improve the processes for collecting, collating and analysing data related to concerns about vulnerable prisoners.