UK: Prisons DG threatens to resign
01 January 2001
The Director General of the Prison Service, Martin Narey, threatened to resign at the beginning of February over the "..immorality of our treatment of some of our prisoners and the degradation of some establishments." Speaking to the Prison Service conference Martin Narey described six of the UK's prisons - Wormwood Scrubs, Birmingham, Leeds, Wandsworth, Portland and Brixton - as "hell holes" and "terrible places" that have seen little change and no improvement in the last six years. His remarks followed on from the publication of a report, after a snap inspection of Brixton prison, south London, by the chief inspector of prisons David Ramsbotham, which described the deteriorating conditions at the jail as "totally unacceptable."
Narey, making his third address to the Prisons Service conference, attacked the apathy and negligence that had allowed prisons to become accepted as "terrible places, which can't be changed". Speaking of the six named prisons, he continued:
Year after year, governor after governor, inspection after inspection, prisons like these have been exposed. Year after year the exposure has led to a flurry of hand wringing, sometimes a change of governor, a dash of capital investment, but no real or sustained improvement.
He went on to question the commitment of the Prison Service and argued that it has to "decide, as a Service, whether this litany of failure and moral neglect continues indefinitely or whether we are going to reform places."
Narey then went on to issue an ultimatum:
I want to tell you frankly that I have no wish to be a Director General of a Service which is going to duck these issues. I don't yet know whether I will be offered an extension to my contract when it expires in 11 months. But I tell you now: unless, in addition to the unequivocal support of Ministers and the backing of an outstanding, committed and cohesive Board I believe I have the support, encouragement of all of you in this audience, I'll find an easier way of earning a living.
In concluding his talk Narey identified "three vital things" that need to be improved: "reduce suicides, improve the care of the mentally ill and improve the impoverishment of regimes in some locals and in YOI’s [Young Offenders Institutions] caring for the over eighteens."
However, Narey could have chosen any one of a dozen issues that have received scathing criticism from other authoritative figures. In September three prison officers were jailed for a premeditated attack on an inmate, which was described by Judge Byers as "an abuse of trust". In November a Prison Service report into conditions at Brixton prison led Narey to conclude: "that the administration at Brixton was institutionally racist and that a small number of staff sustained and promoted overtly racist behaviour."
In December police and the Prison service announced an investigation into staff bribery and corruption at three prisons. The Observer newspaper reported that, "Almost 400 inquiries have been launched in the last six months alone into offences ranging from sexual and racial harassment of other prison staff to assisting convicts to escape from prisons, rape and moonlighting." Also in December, the chief inspector of prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham, drew attention to the chronic overcrowding that blights the UK's jails. He called for a the release of a third of prisoners to alleviate the problem.
Narey's half dozen
Birmingham: 1999: Grossly overcrowded. Chief Inspector of Prisons (CIP) says conditions unacceptable. Healthcare centre was the worst the inspectors had seen ("the stench...pervaded the coridoor"). Concern over the use of "physical force".
Brixton: 2000: Report says that staff harassed inmates and illegally punished black prisoners; 2001: Healthcare centre criticised for dirt and neglect. Staff neglected prisoners at risk of suicide.
Leeds: 1995: Conditions unsatisfactory
Portland YOI: 2001: Condemned as militaristic with a culture of violenc