Jails regime must change, says inspector

THE CHIEF Inspector of Prisons called for root and branch reform of the prison system yesterday in an outspoken attack on management structures. The tough message was delivered by General Sir David Ramsbotham, just weeks after he published reports criticising standards at four jails around the country.

He told Alastair Stewart on GMTV's Sunday programme that the problems highlighted at Highpoint in Suffolk, Wood Hill at Milton Keynes, Eastwood Park, Gloucestershire and Weddington at Stoke on Trent were symptoms of an "underlying malaise" that needed to be cured. He pointed to the fundamental problem of "horrendous over-crowding", which led to scarce resources and, some times, appalling conditions.

"The point is, at the moment prisons are pretty disorganised in their management. It's very important all prisoners of the same kind, be they women, young offenders or whatever, should be treated consistently wherever they are in the country. And that means laying down precisely what should happen in those prisons and making certain that they all have the resources."

He said that the problem lay in the constant battle between directors of regimes - those responsible for designing programmes for prisons across the country - and local area managers. "The trouble is, around the country, prisons are grouped into areas of all types of prison in a particular geographical location where an area manager looks after the money there. The regime directors have to plead for the money to deliver their regimes and I think this is something that's got to change."

He also expressed his concerns about the treatment of sex offenders, in the light of an upcoming report from the NSPCC, which is expected to allege widespread problems with sex offenders forming networks. "There's a considerable danger that if you put all sex offenders together they tend to feed off each other. The way in which sex offenders in prison link up with the sex offenders in the special hospitals and in the community is worrying."

On a more positive note, Sir David praised the Government for its efforts to integrate prisons, which he said have in the past been regarded as isolated, into the criminal justice system.