19th June 2007

 
New reports reveal that:
- 70 women inmates have killed themselves in a decade - 9 of those at Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire (the same number as London's infamous Holloway)
- Gloucester Prison which has also been amongst the top suicide rates in the country has been deemed "unfit for purpose".

The Howard League for Penal Reform says the average age of the women who took their own lives in Eastwood Park at Falfield, near Wotton-under-Edge was less than 24, and three had not been convicted of an offence. Meanwhile Gloucester Prison's Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has labelled the Gloucester prison "unfit for purpose" in a new report and wants the facility to be replaced altogether. The IMB states in its latest annual report say: "HMP Gloucester operates in an out-of-date building which is becoming increasingly unfit for purpose and ideally should be replaced" (i).

A Stroud District Green party spokesperson, Cllr Philip Booth said: "These reports are worrying. In terms of womens' prisons we need to see Baroness Corston's recent recommendations accepted: more community based programmes and smaller local secure units are needed."

Philip Booth said: "While the Gloucester report shows that the poor facilities impact on the work to rehabilitate prisoners and it highlights very real concerns over how prisoners with mental health problems are managed - last year 300 prisoners were admitted to Gloucester with mental health problems. The report highlights staff/prisoner relationships are good but prisons should not be hospitals for people with mental health problems nor are they drug treatment centres. For the last few years there have been reports condemning Gloucester yet nothing seems to happen. We urgently need significant reforms and improvements."

Green approach

Philip Booth said: "Britain has the highest prison rate in Europe. We have seen a catalogue of problems with the prison service over the last year from offences overseas not being added to police computors to failed Control Orders. Last November the prison population passed the 80,000 mark with another 8,000 places promised. We are reaching a crisis point - prison isn't working (ii): 58% of prisoners and two-thirds of young offenders reoffend within 2 years of release. Prisons, of course have an important role to play but many petty offenders should be in mental health or drug treatment programmes."

Philip Booth said: "Greens want 'Restorative justice' in which criminals face their victims in truth and reconciliation sessions and undertake some form of 'pay back'. In UK trials, 90% of victims felt helped by this process, and in Australian studies, violent criminals were 50% less likely to re-offend. Where prison is the only option sentencing should be in keeping with the offence and include rehabilitation. It is pointless spending huge amounts of tax on prosecution and £40,000 a year on imprisonment(iv) if you are just going to release people into an even more hopeless world, with fewer prospects than when they were sentenced."


Notes:

(i) There are a lack of dining facilities so around 200 of the 300 prisoners have to eat their meals in their cells, which also house their toilets. Prisoners in C wing do not have ready access to toilet facilities at night. Cells are cramped and dark and many areas are too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Gloucester Prison has a capacity of 323 prisoners and many cells originally designed for one prisoner now house two men.

(ii) Professor Morgan for example has presided over a steady increase in numbers of under-18s in custody, despite a Home Office commitment to reduce the total. As it became clear his contract would not be renewed, he quit his job at the beginning of the year with a damning verdict on the policies of his political masters. Professor Morgan told BBC2's Newsnight: "We are standing on the brink of a prisons crisis. We have tonight lots of people in police cells because there is no space for them in custody and that's true for children and young people also.. The Government's targets for bringing criminals to justice were having "perverse consequences", he protested, as minor offenders who were previously dealt with informally were caught up in an over-stretched criminal justice system. Professor Morgan said locking youngsters up had very little success in stopping them reoffending, describing the idea of building ever more prisons to solve the crisis as a "counsel of despair". Similarly Martin Narey, the former director general of the Prison Service, said: "One of the reasons why we are in the midst of such a dreadful population crisis in prisons is that many offenders - many of them children - are in prison when there is no need for them to be there."