Prison

Prison

Saturday 22 July 2017

YOI Aylesbury: The Inside Story

Although it is common knowledge that our prison system is in deep crisis, the actual details of what is going on behind prison walls are often hidden from public view. Appalling events take place, but these stories are rarely told because of the suffocating blanket of official secrecy from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) that has come to envelop our jails like a thick mist. Transparency is a pipe dream.

HM YOI Aylesbury
Yesterday (Friday July 21) there was a serious incident of violence at HM YOI Aylesbury. We have learned this not by reading about it in the local or national newspapers or from seeing it on the television news, but only because reliable, professional sources inside the system have passed on the details to a private blogger who has an active interest in the prison crisis. That’s why the news was broken on my Twitter account this afternoon and why you are reading about the incident on this blog.

In a nutshell, a group of over 30 young inmates located on one wing became involved in a mass brawl yesterday morning. Rather than rewriting one of the accounts I’ve received, I’ll simply let the person (who has to remain anonymous for obvious reasons) tell the story for themselves, with their permission. This may be the only accurate account of this incident you’ll ever read, so it’s important the truth is told.

The incident yesterday was horrific. The wing has been brewing for a while. The worst, most difficult wing is being run by new officers. We are 30 staff down and now will be even more. 

The wing is over run with problems of gangs and gang violence. There has been a big rise in weapons and drugs in the jail. The governors were warned. The wing in question houses most gangs in the jail on one wing. 

A mass brawl broke out yesterday morning, calling on all officers available lots of times. We didn't have the staff. Prisoners were attacking each other with weapons – and staff. 

Staff were trying to save their lives and got battered. Some were seriously injured. Another officer was on the landing unconscious. We had ambulances and fire service in trying to help alongside our healthcare department. If anything had happened elsewhere in the jail we wouldn't have been able to cope. 

Aylesbury is at breaking point. Eleven officers had to go to hospital and others are injured. 

I'm so angry by what has happened to be honest! The government do nothing. The public should know what really happens! I have never seen anything as bad as this in the years that I have worked there. Members of staff are in danger.

I enjoy my job and enjoy working with the lads, but yesterday was different. They had no fear and they didn't care. The staff tried their best and they worked incredibly hard. They put their lives on the line to save the lads’ lives when they seemed to just want to kill each other! 

To be fair our number one governor is good and she's trying hard but she's battling against a broken system. We have so many new officers that work hard but they are so young and they just aren't getting the support from their seniors. Older members of staff are burnt out. 

We have prisoners who are over 22 stuck in the jail because we barely have any offender supervisors to do the work and no adult jails will take our lads. The wings are rife with spice, cannabis, steroids and weapons. 

And we have had a few near miss suicides recently, alongside a serious fight earlier in the year in which a brick was used to smash a lad’s skull in. I don't understand how the MOJ can sit there and justify what they do.

The staff try hard but what's three new staff on a wing of 70 lads mainly gang members? It's unsafe. I know staff are not eating and throwing up after work because they are so anxious to go to work.

I’m dreading going to work, having to try and help the people that have hurt my friends. What worries me now is some of the lads involved I would have put money on them being decent guys. They weren't the 'typical' disruptive prisoners.

So now the truth is out there. It can no longer be covered up by the bureaucrats and press officers down in at the MOJ in Petty France.
Wing inside HM YOI Aylesbury

No-one can say that the deteriorating security situation at YOI Aylesbury has come as a surprise.  In its most recent annual report for 2015-2016 published in January this year (see here), the YOI’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) states clearly that: “The current staffing level, significantly reduced over the last five years, has made the prison a more dangerous place for staff and prisoners. Additionally, due to the prominence of gangs across the establishment, the complexity of delivering programmes, education and training, coupled with difficulties in delivering prisoners to their activities, suggest staff levels need to be improved considerably if goals are to be met.”

There should be no attempt to sugar coat the bitter truth. What has just happened at YOI Aylesbury is an absolute disgrace. Eleven members of staff have been injured – two seriously enough to have been unconscious and taken to hospital – largely due to inadequate levels of staffing, including deployment of officers with insufficient experience to cope with the particular dangers of this establishment.

Rt Hon David Lidington
It is not enough for the MOJ to recite its usual mantra that ‘lessons will be learned’. Clearly they have not been and explicit warnings from the local IMB have been ignored. Ministers – particularly Sam Gyimah, the Prisons Minister, who has been in post since July 2016 – must accept responsibility for the Ministry’s appalling political decision-making over the past seven years.

Fortunately, this time, no-one has been killed at YOI Aylesbury. However, unless urgent action to address this ongoing crisis, sooner or later there will be the risk of loss of life, whether a prisoner or member of staff.

We also cannot allow the MOJ to lockdown information on serious incidents in our prison estate. Without freedom of information, there can be no genuine political or institutional accountability.

David Lidington, the new Secretary of State for Justice, needs to get a grip on the culture of silence and obstruction of the media within his department. In the meantime, he should visit Aylesbury in person as a matter of urgency and speak to both frontline staff and young prisoners in private to understand why this establishment is in deep crisis. Failure to act will be an abdication of his responsibility.

20 comments:

  1. Im really concerned hearing this thid government needs to go.

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  2. It's been going on for years. The government are either seriously naive or stupid. They deny that there are any problems and just blame staff for not dealing with it. It's like trying to put out a fire with a petrol soaked blanket!

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    1. The root of the problem is a very distorted view of how criminal justice actually works. There is still this view that if you treat damaged people badly they will suddenly reform spontaneously. It is the same school of thought that once held you can thrash obedience into children even though that dangerous and sadistic idea has long ago been discredited.

      The UK is often decades behind countries like Holland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. When it comes to prison issues, I think we are a century behind.

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    2. I'm afraid the post above that reads "The government are either seriously naive or stupid" in not correct at all. Let's set the record straight people - THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE PROBLEMS ARE AND HAVE DONE FOR YEARS. Having served 33 years as a Prison Officer I know that the MOJ and the Government (and all previous Governments) are well aware of the situation. However, they are also aware that, to the general public, the Prison Service is the "forgotten service" and as such the public just want the bad guys locked up so they feel more secure in their homes. The truth is the public don't really want the gory details of staff assaults, drugs, suicides and serious acts of indiscipline. The MOJ and the Government use this "out of sight-out of mind" mentality to manipulate and distort the true state of our prisons and the crisis the service is in and what is actually going on on a daily basis in "OUR" prisons. They (the government) have been hell bent for decades now reducing staff numbers and when they do recruit they do so by offering lower wages as well as eroding Prison Officers "Terms & Conditions". But it gets even worse, on top of that the government are also determined on destroying the union - the POA (Prison Officers Association), which is the only organisation trying to protect staff from this unforgivable unrelenting onslaught. That has been perfectly highlighted in the last few days with the announcement that the government has won a High Court bid that makes it illegal for Prison Officers to take any form of industrial action. The MOJ and the Government really have been relishing in the fact that they are having their cake and eating it. SHAME ON YOU!
      So far as me, I'm now retired and I really feel for those officers... but the truth is, those in power do not care one single jot. Disgraceful.

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    3. Well said, very well put. Left the service in 2010 along side many colleagues, only to be replaced by inexperienced officers. Jail craft comes from walking the landings, learning from experienced colleagues but now all the experienced staff are all but gone..sad, sad times for what was once a proud service.

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    4. I retired in 1996 after 31 years as an officer. Aren't I glad I'm out of it. My thoughts and prayers are always with those staff still trying to cope!!

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  3. Also immigration centres are also suffering the same issues. It's beyond a joke.

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  4. All the political parties are to blame not just the current one.

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    1. I agree that we have had decades of poor political decisions. However, the present governing party has been in power for over seven years and it is the cuts since 2010 that have led to this staffing crisis. Trying to blame opposition parties for seven years of appalling bad decision- making lets the likes of Chris Grayling and Liz Truss off the hook which is why they constantly get away with it and just move on.

      Also, only the government of the day has the power to change anything, so that is where the pressure needs to be brought to bear.

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  5. Why has the UK press continually covered these things up? Only the BBC seems to report anything and then only once every 6 months. The rising crime rate and deaths rate in custody are a direct result of cuts. Prison officers have the worst job in the UK.....

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    1. Broadcasters and other journalists come up against a brick wall when attempting to deal with the MOJ press office. Ministers are never available for interview and often the best you can hope for is a brief statement saying virtually nothing. Editors often spike good stories because the government won't confirm anything.

      It's left for concerned whistleblowers to work with specialised social media platforms (like this blog!) in order to get the story out. Then local and national media get in contact, but only once the story is effectively 'out there' on the internet. Sad, but true.

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  6. Strange then that recent press release state that Spurr and his management tean have received large bonuses. Is it political or are the politicians not being told the truth. If there is (God forbid) a member of staff killed, then Spurr and his cronies must be charged with corporate manslaughter....enough is enough....

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    1. Lorraine Barwell was killed last year. If she'd been a copper there would have been medals and honours.

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  7. Keep up the work Alex. I left the prison service in 2011 - I thought the cuts to that point were too much. What has happened since is terrifying, for staff, prisoners and their families. Only surprise is we haven't had another strangeways yet.

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  8. Comes only a few months after eight officers were hospitalised from Cookham Wood in one incident.

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    1. Good. To often the prisoner officers abuse the prisoners and get away with it. You know the saying; "What goes around comes around". Put on your big boy panties, and suck it up buttercup. Deal with you come around like the men you think you are when kicking and punching shackled prisoners. Personally I think most of you are nothing but Cowards and Bullies! You bought it on yourselves.

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  9. Would love to know where the HMPPS/Sarah Payne report into the 'incident' at HMP Bham has been buried?!?!? Surely this should be informing current HMPPS policy...

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  10. Well in some establishments you get the backing of the Governors but in alot of them they wouldn't back the staff if they were fighting for their lives. They would be under investigation. When there are visits from area managers and above its like either everything is hidden from sight or they are as bad as the governors in place. Seems as the management in these places are more corrupt than the prisoners.

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  11. You think as the MP of Aylesbury David Lidington would have its interests at heart including the prison but clearly he does not. Shameful.

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  12. lmao I was in their 87 92 loved the olace,

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