Member News
By Lord Ramsbotham - 5th December 2011
Lord Ramsbotham draws attention to the late arrival of prisoners to Feltham prison and the impact this will have on re-offending.
Initial reception and the first night in prison are, arguably, the most important episodes of a sentence. How they are conducted condition a prisoner's attitude to imprisonment, and therefore are likely to impact on whether or not they re-offend.
In ideal circumstances a prisoner will be delivered early enough in a day for reception procedures to be carried out in full, plus careful selection of with whom he or she may be required to share a cell on their first night. The later that delivery, and the more circumscribed those procedures, the more likely that things will go wrong, sometimes even resulting in suicide.
Contracted escort vans are required to deliver prisoners by not later than 7.30 pm, which allows for adequate, although truncated procedures. Courts usually close around 4pm, so, assuming that those who have been sentenced earlier in the day are taken to prison as soon as possible afterwards, the only people likely to arrive late are those involved in later courts.
But, possibly to cut costs, security companies sometimes use drivers as court orderlies, which means that they cannot start delivering until after the courts have closed. Because of the numbers involved, and the numbers of prisons that have to be visited, this inevitably leads to late delivery.
Young offenders, because of their vulnerability, are the very last who should have their reception arrangements cut short. Unfortunately the figures show that late delivery happens consistently at Feltham, something about which I complained when Chief Inspector of Prisons, for the then proven reasons that I have outlined above. I shall be asking the government to investigate the current reasons, and to take action against any private security company found to be causing this by using drivers as court orderlies.
David John Ramsbothamis a retired army general. He is currently the president of UNLOCK (National Association of Ex Prisoners. He was raised to the peerage in 2005 and sits as a crossbencher.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd