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Circumstances beyond the control of the HMP Bedford Prison

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Circumstances beyond the control of the HMP Bedford Prison

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# The Chief Inspector of prisons Peter Clark said the responsibility to deliver on our recommendations lies mainly with the governor and stressed on the need for a  consistent local leadership.
# Significant areas of delivery are dependent on national contracts outside the governor’s direct control.

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The tracking of prisoners on release was poor which makes it impossible to assess the success or failure of different interventions. The Board considers this to be a serious deficit, which must be rectified.

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Prisoners needs to achieve basic levels of literacy and numeracy training before they can apply for work. Some of these needs were being supported via Outreach Education, completed in-cell, but lockdowns 23 hours a day due to staff shortages was a serious failure.

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In the face of all these failings, it is reassuring to be able to point out some positive about HMP Bedford Prison. For instance, 79% of prisoners said that staff treated them with respect. The food was rated good or very good by 43% of prisoners, more PE equipment and facilities were good.

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# Easy access to illegal drugs especially psychoactive drugs  were high.
# Increase use of force against inmate was high
# Rise in suicide and self harm was very high
# Crowded and sometime unsafe living condition was high.

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HMP Bedford Prison Performance indicators

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HMP Bedford Prison Performance indicators

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Her Majesty Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent statutory organisation which reports on the treatment and conditions of those detained in prisons, young offender institutions, secure training centres, immigration detention facilities, police and court custody and military detention. All inspections are carried out by HM Inspectorate of Prisons based on the four tests of a healthy prison namely Safety, Respect, Purposeful of activity and Resettlement. This inspection was jointly carried out with

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Chronic Staff shortages

Drug misuse,

Overcrowding and cramped condition

Bullying

Poor physical condition of the prison

Inhumane treatment

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The prison population is increasing while staffing level is being cut back putting the health, safety and wellbeing of prisoners at risk. Prison is supposed to be a place of punishment, correction and rehabilitation of people back to the community but releasing this people back into the community without the support that they needed will cause them to reoffend and end up going back to prisoner which is a waste to public funds. The issue of inadequate staffing and lack of consistent leadership in the prison is also putting staff, prisoners and public safety at risk.

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Staff Training and Recruitment - HMP Bedford Prison

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Staff Training and Recruitment - HMP Bedford Prison

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# There have been major problems in recruitment and retention of staff in HMP Bedford prison as a good number of staff were quitting their jobs because of their personal safety and low wages.
# There was lack of consistency in the treatment of prisoners by different staff in different blocks. This means that, there was not team work and co-ordinating effort by staff to work together in achieving the common prison goals. Managers says one thing and uniformed staff says another thing. There is a need to provide staff with more training including refreshers training, team spirit and interpersonal skills.
# Access to advice about legal aid, appeals and bail is a major concern to most prisoners, there were not sufficient trained officers to provide such advice.
# The issues of managing people with ‘personality disorders’ (PD) are not well understood or addressed by officers, although some training has been provided during the year, particularly to staff working in segregation to manage people with PD effectively requires specialist and expert staff.
# Prisoners have raised concerns about the privacy during consultations, this raises issues about staff knowledge and understanding of legislations regarding confidentiality, privacy, dignity and data protection issues.

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The purpose of the inspection was to address the serious failures both national and local levels of the chronic staff shortages and poor managerial policy to prevent a future rioting. lt was also, to address victims and families of prisoners that things will change in the prison management after the inspection 2016 report. The Chief HMP Inspector said, it was disappointing that the HMP inspection recommendations report in 2014 was ignore by national and local management levels and hard to understand how such an abject failures were left undress. The inspection was to assure the public that actions has been taken to prevent future rioting and protect public safety.

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Resident Reaction to the HMP Bedford Prison riot

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Resident Reaction to the HMP Bedford Prison riot

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Public perceptions of whether a range of professionals in the public domain can be trusted to tell the truth when issues of this nature occurred. The public lack trust and confidence that authorities will generally cover up wrongdoing to avoid accountability and responsibility. The residents felt the Bedford prison management was too soft to people who bring illegal items and drugs to prisons. They further said, the prison management knew this will happen because it has happened before and did nothing to prevent it. The resident blame government policy of radically reducing prison staff levels and said if prisoners were treated so well, this  riot would not have happen.
The public demand answers to how did 200 prisoners get hold of knives in the first place?
How did the inmate open every wing of the prison?
How do drugs, mobile phones get into the prison and blame this on corrupt guards and demand answers.

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The government has announce last week a £1.3bn investment plan in new prisons over the next five years, and plans for 2,100 extra officers, drug tests and more autonomy for governors.
The ministry of Justice said it was tacking the challenges in the Bedford prison head on and added that the safety in prisons was fundamental to the proper functioning of the justice system and a vital part of the government reform plans. There are many factors including the availability of psychoactive substances that must be tackled, and we are rolling out mandatory nationwide testing of synthetic drugs which will help to end the flow of these dangerous drugs into our prisons.
An extra of 2,500 prison officers are to be recruited at a cost of £104m to tackle the “unacceptable” levels of violence in jails across England and Wales said the justice secretary, Elizabeth Truss

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Clearly the inspection recommendations were ignored, the consequences is what happen in the Bedford riot 2016. The BBC reported that the cleanup cost of the riot is expected to be at least £1m which is a concern to public funds and lack of bad management and accountability issue with public officials.
The Chief Inspector of prisons Peter Clark said he made an announced follow up visit to assessment the situation in the prison for himself. “I was disappointed to find out despite assurances, first night arrangements were still unacceptably poor, prisoners were not being sent to what had been designated as the first night Centre on C wing. I met one foreign national prisoner who had been received into HMP Bedford the day before my visit. He had been placed in a cell with three other prisoners on C wing, the wing staff did not even know they had a new arrival in their care, and we were only able to locate him through the good offices of a wing orderly. It is hard to understand how this situation could arise.

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#Staff shortages alongside with high levels of staff absent from work through sickness means that the prison could not operate effectively and efficiently, was a serious failure of a managerial duties.
# Intelligence gathering and security information were up to date, but the prison management still failed to tackle major threats facing the prison.
# Managerial failures to control the flow of drugs and mobile phones use in the prison.
The management fail to ensure a safe environment for prisoners was clearly seen through,
the level of self-harm among prisoners  which has double from 67% to 121.
The number of prisoners on prisoner assault per year rose from 12 in 2000 to 80 in 2010.
Assault on staff rose from 61 in 2000 to 32 in 2006.
The strategy of managing of equality and diversity was a failure
# Some sensitive interviews with prisoners were held without adequate privacy,.

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# Government cut backs was to be blame on the prison rioting for lack of staffing. The £3.3bn budget for prisons in England & Wales has been cut by 24 per cent over the past three years. The cuts have had wide-ranging implications, especially in terms of staffing and rising violence.

# Government failures to ensure a consistent local leadership have had a significant effect on the management operational performance. HMP report indicates that four people fulfilling the role of a governor due to situational factors such as maternity leave, retirement and promotion.

What I think government should do is to ensure a safe and decent environment is provided at HMP Bedford prison. Ensure that the prison have at least enough staff to operate to meet the needs of the overcrowded prisoners.

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# There is no legal aid program in the HMP Bedford prison as many prisoners are not aware on how to access a bail.
# Foreign national prisoners were not provided legal support and language interpretation
# Racism, sexism, and sentence disparities was a serious problem amount inmates, yet victims were not supported with legal justice.
I think our jurisdiction system must do more to address prisoners legal issues, particularly at a point of release.

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#Westminster Drugs Project Drug team are responsible in ensuring that drug problem in the prison is control as well of developing programs to help victims with drug abuse in the prison but fail to do their duties.
#The quality of the National Careers Service provided was a failure. Too few prisoners benefited from timely interventions to support their employment, training or education on release
# Prisoners had too few opportunities in vocational training and work settings to develop and gain acre
Offender supervisors had infrequent contact with prisoners due to caseload. Too many prisoners were transferred without an offender assessment system (OASys) assessment to inform their move.

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                                  Accountability Issues - HMP Bedford Prison

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                                  Accountability Issues - HMP Bedford Prison

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An investigation is still underway into the cause of the rioting in the HMP Bedford prison riot with an unconfirmed report saying is the poor conditions inside the prison. Speaking outside the jail, a man claiming to be a relative of one of the inmates, said: "This riot is about poor condition in the prison and prisoners locked up for 23 hours a day and only get half an hour break and then back to their cells. "Conditions in that jail are terrible, there is no space, and not enough staff. It was only a matter of time before this happened.  A report reveals that some cells were dirty, and some prisoners have no pillows, kettle, adequate bedding as well as clothing’s, damage furniture and unscreened showers were common in the prison, staff shortage was said to be the main problem.  Foreign national prisoners with no English speaking had no access to any support which left them isolated, Support for older prisoners was poor with no activity targeting this group. An unannounced inspection by the  HMP Inspectorate 2016 still found failures in the prison service delivering and failures to implement the recommendation made to the prison in 20.

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HMP Bedford Prison Riot 2016

HMP Bedford Prison is a local category B and resettlement prison for young adult and young men age between 18 -21. On Sunday 6 November 2016. A riot broke out and 200 prisoners seized keys, broke into the medicine store and started a small fire, shouting and bellowing forcing staff to retreat to a place of safety. A video thought to have been taken by an inmate using a prohibited mobile phone, shows the chaotic scenes with prisoners shouting, banging and flooding the jail gangway. The disorder comes after the General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA) Steve Gillan warn of the violence in our prisons and call for immediate action to be taken to avoid any catastrophe. An insider said the riots came after the wardens cut social time due to shortage of staff forcing prisoners to spend up to 23 hours a day in their cells. Prisoners complain of inhumane treatment and lack of basic items like toiletries, bedding, pillows and clothes.  Her Majesty's Prison inspection in May 2014 found poor physical conditions of the prison have deteriorated to an unacceptable level. There were no injuries to prison staff but two inmates were later treated for injuries that were not serious. The disturbance was successfully brought under control by a special riots force officers, the Police, Fire Service and paramedics.

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The HMP Bedford was established in1801. It was enlarged in 1849 with a new gate lodge, house block and health care centre added in the early 1990s. It accepts adult male and young adult male prisoners from Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. The acting governor/director is Roy Stevenson. It has an operational capacity of 506 and the number of prisoners held is 493. Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) and the Westminster Drugs Project (WDP) are providers of health care services for the prison.