Prison Regimes: Where the Cracks are Showing

Each prison in the UK runs on a timetable – usually called ‘the regime’ – and this determines what is supposed to be happening at any time of day. It includes the times that prisoners are locked in their cells or unlocked, the times of roll-checks and the schedules for work, education and association (recreation). It also sets down the specific times for family visits, exercise, gym access, library visits and so on.

Empty landing: cons banged-up

Broadly speaking, on weekdays prisoners are unlocked in the morning to go to work or education, return to the wing for lunch, get banged up for an hour or so while staff have their meal, then get unlocked again for afternoon work or classes. This is usually known as the ‘core day’. Then there is another period of bang-up before the late afternoon meal, which can be followed by association, exercise, gym or library visits, although all of these appear to be endangered species at the moment. The most likely alternative is yet more time locked in the cell.

Those prisoners who are unemployed, retired (over 65) or sick or disabled can often find themselves locked up for most of the day, every day. Some nicks do open cell doors for elderly cons to play quiet board games or cards in a recreation area, or just to chat and read newspapers, but this requires sufficient wing staff being on duty and so it is usually the first thing to be cancelled when there are insufficient screws available.

Most closed jails don’t have work or education on a Friday afternoon, so there can be various other activities timetabled, such as weekly kit change (when prison-issue clothing and bedding can be exchanged). There can also be association on the wing for a couple of hours followed by the evening meal and then early bang-up – often until Saturday lunchtime.

Your world for 23 hours a day

Weekends are generally times when all prisoners remain locked in their cells for much longer periods. Different jails have their own weekend regimes, but some only allow cons out of their pads (cells) for a couple of hours, or even just to collect meals, have a quick shower and maybe get in a 10 minute call home from the wing payphones. Religious services in the prison chapel or prayer room also tend to take place between Friday afternoons (Muslims) and Sundays (most Christian denominations).

When prisons are in crisis, whether that is caused by shortages of frontline staff or overcrowding, the regime is usually the first casualty. In the worst case scenario, wings are effectively ‘locked down’. This may involve a few prisoners at a time being unlocked to collect meals from the servery before being locked up again for the rest of the day. Everything else is cancelled, including work and education. This is the emergency regime that is often imposed following a ‘disturbance’ (what riots are called these days), or when other wings or units are protesting with cons refusing to return to their cells. 

One of the ways that you can tell whether the UK’s prison system really is in crisis is by examining how many prisons actually manage to provide sufficient work, education and other activities to get most prisoners out of their cells for the recommended ten hours each day. The best source of information is probably the Prisoner Survey conducted by HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) with the finding reflected in the Inspectorate’s annual reports. 

So how has the situation changed on Chris Grayling’s watch? If we look at the HMIP report for 2012-2013, these problems seem to have been getting worse. You can find the whole report here.

The HMIP observes that across the UK prison estate:

• Activity outcomes were poor and falling. 

• Too many prisoners spent too long locked in their cells, and evening association was increasingly curtailed. 

• There were too few activity places, and low take-up of what was available, often disrupted by poor attendance and punctuality, prison routines and other activities.

Behind the door

When we look at the statistics for time spent out of cell, the HMIP found: “Too many prisoners were locked up for too long every day, and their time out of cell had reduced. Only 17 percent of prisoners surveyed in category C training prisons and 15 percent in category B training prisons said they spent 10 hours out of cell on a weekday.” 

Now it needs to be borne in mind that the prisons in question are supposed to be training establishments. They are tasked with providing education, productive work and vocational training to improve prisoners’ chances of rehabilitation and resettlement back into the community. If they aren’t doing that because of staff shortages, then they are – by definition – failing to deliver on their own aims and objectives and, by extension, failing the taxpayer.  

When it comes to B-cat local prisons, as we might expect, the figures are even worse. According to the HMIP annual report only 9 percent of inmates spent the recommended 10 hours out of cell, while 22 percent were banged up for between 22 and 23 hours each day during weekdays. 

In part, this is because B-cat locals tend to have a very transitory population consisting of new receptions arriving from court, unconvicted prisoners held on remand ahead of their trials, prisoners serving short sentences who won’t even have time to be re-categorised to C-cat or D-cat, or ex-prisoners who have been recalled to custody for breaching their licence conditions and who will be awaiting reviews or Parole Board hearings to determine whether they should be re-released. For most of these prisoners, there will be very limited chances of getting a job in the nick or of enrolling on an education course. That’s why they are likely to spend most of the core day locked behind their doors, even if they genuinely want to work or improve their literacy and vocational skills.

However, having a prison job or participating in education are no guarantees that cons will actually get significantly more time out of their cells. As the Inspectorate observes: “Prisoners engaged in working, training or education generally had the most time unlocked, with approximately nine hours on a weekday. But there were exceptions to this – at Lewes and Lincoln, unlock time was less than six hours, even for a fully employed prisoner.” 

HMP Lewes: in crisis?

Interestingly, HMP Lewes has been in the news just this week because of the resignation of its long-serving Governor, Nigel Foote, and dire warnings of the risks of riots being leaked to the media by both serving staff and prisoners. Lewes is one of the establishments that is so short of frontline officers that it is reported to be having to ‘shut down’ whole wings up to three times a week, meaning that those prisoners would be locked up in their cells pretty much all day, with all activities cancelled. In addition, according to information provided by a serving con, medical appointments are also being cancelled without notice, a sure sign of a prison that is in serious trouble.

Gym or library? Or neither?

HMP Lincoln – another pretty dire B-cat local establishment that regularly gets a good kicking from the Inspectorate – is reported to be so short of wing screws that it has started only allowing one landing out of four any evening association at all during the week. This means that out of around 180 cons per wing, around 45 get recreation time, while the other 135 remained banged-up all evening, presumably unable to take a shower after work or phone their families. Library visits have also been cut back to just two per month and clash with the weekly gym period.

I’ve noticed that Lincoln is actually advertising for new staff on a banner attached to its front railings. It would be interesting to know why this situation has been allowed to get so desperate. Perhaps the Governor, Peter Wright, who I gather may be a reader of this blog, could enlighten us as to the current position by posting a comment underneath.

Of course, the ongoing crisis in British prison regimes is not a new problem. Nevertheless, a 30 percent reduction in prison staff between 2010 and 2013 has made what was already a bad situation even worse. Research by the Howard League for Penal Reform revealed that there were just 19,325 officer grades working in prisons in September 2013, down from 27,650 in September 2010.

However, that can’t be the only factor. If we look back to 2010 the HMIP Prisoner Survey revealed that between 82 percent and 92 percent of prisoners who participated in the survey across 31 prisons did not get to spend at least ten hours out of their cells during weekdays and that was back in the days when there were more screws on the wings. 

En-suite facilities in every cell

Based on my own experience in prisons, I have come to the conclusion that a fair number of the problems in our failing nicks are down to poor management of staff resources and illogical timetabling. This view seems to be shared by the HMIP as in its 2012-2013 report it points out that prisons were often failing to make use of those work and education places that were provided: “… there was a widespread and unacceptable failure to fill the places available. Half of all prisons failed to use their available places effectively, leaving prisoners unnecessarily without work or training.” That’s a pretty stinging criticism, as well as revealing a shocking waste of publicly-funded resources.

Blame is placed by the HMIP on poor management and planning of regimes: “In addition, prisoners’ chances of making the most of learning opportunities and the working day were frequently undermined by prison routines – particularly in local prisons where a variety of assessments, detoxification and legal processes required prisoners to have many appointments away from their activity place, and also where the number of remand prisoners led to disruption. However, much of this disruption was avoidable and a result of insufficient management attention and poor timetabling.”

Cruel and unusual punishment?

So what do cons get up to if they are only unlocked for an hour or so per day? Most will just lie on their bunks watching daytime TV, reading (assuming they can actually get access to the library to borrow books) or writing letters home. In a shared pad, as long as you get on with your pad-mate, you can chat or play cards. Some will no doubt be taking drugs (both illegal and so-called legal highs) to help ease the boredom and to pass the time.

Of course, if you are a prisoner on the high punitive Basic regime, there will be no TV and probably no cell-mate, so you will just sleep or stare at the walls or use a prison razor-blade to slash your own flesh in a desperate attempt to manage your depression. Perhaps it is unsurprising that rates of self-harm, mental illness and suicide are rocketing across the closed prisons, with the Basic regime a prime culprit, especially now that it is much easier to put prisoners into what amounts to solitary confinement, often for very long periods of time: months or even years.  

The evidence of our failing prison system is there for all to see, yet Mr Grayling – ‘the Comical Ali of the Ministry of Justice’ – refuses to acknowledge there is a crisis and continues to turn a blind eye: “Riots, I see no riots!” However, unlike Horatio Nelson, Rear Admiral Grayling is a lousy strategist and a worse tactician whose flagship private nick, HMP Oakwood, is fatally holed below the waterline and going down, to be closely followed by the MOJ Titanic unless it changes course radically. Happy days!