30 per cent of prisoners at G4S’s Wolds do nothing all day

G4S has done little to improve employment training or skills development for inmates since HMP Wolds’ last inspection in December 2009, according to an official report released today. It says up to a third of inmates wander around the wings all day and more than 30 per cent are doubled up at night, living in cells designed for one person.

The findings come amid concerns over G4S’s Olympic Games security failings and fears that more sensitive services including frontline policing are being outsourced to private companies like G4S, one of the largest security firms in the world with after-tax profits of £223m on 2011 revenues of £7.5bn.

G4S runs seven prisons in England and Wales including two 15-year prison contracts worth £750m to run HMP Birmingham and newly-built HMP Featherstone 2.

G4S was formed from a merger between Securicorp plc and Group 4 Falck A/S’s security business in 2004.

Change of management at Wolds?

East Yorkshire’s HMP Wolds became the first privatised prison in Europe in 1992 and has been managed by G4S ever since but there is now a question mark over whether G4S’s 10-year Wolds contract will be renewed at the end of 2012 amid intense competition and the report’s findings.

“Wolds finds itself on the cusp of potentially significant change, with competitive tenders for the management of the prison signalling uncertainty about its future,” Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick said as the official report was released.

“The prison has many strengths. but managers must give their full attention to its very clear weaknesses,” he added.

Illegal drugs

Among those weaknesses are a “high” use of illegal drugs. Almost one in 10 Wolds prisoners has a drug problem. At the same time, many health care services have deteriorated since the 2009 inspection, the report said. Wolds is a category C prison housing medium-to long term prisoners including second stage lifers.

G4S told Channel 4 News “Since this inspection took place, our rate for positive drug tests has fallen significantly – to 2.79 per cent against a target of 11 per cent.

“This has been the direct result of improving our intelligence, challenging prisoners and robustly enforcing the incentives and privileges regime.”

On the positive side, inspectors found reasonably low levels of violence at HMP Wolds (photo, right), low use of force by security staff and low levels of self-harm. There was also reasonable access to the library and high usage of physical educational facilities but no outdoor facilities. Relations with staff were also relatively good, the report said.

The Prison Service Union did not respond to messages left by Channel 4 News.

‘Further work needed’

Michael Spurr, Chief Executive Officer of the National Offender Management Service said further work was needed in the management and quality of “purposeful activity and resettlement” of prisoners – in other words, G4S training for prisoners to find a job and a home on their release.

It is not the first time G4S’s prison management has been in the headlines. G4S took over Birmingham’s prison in October 2011. A month later, a set of keys from the Birmingham Prison gatehouse were reportedly “lost” and G4S faced a £250,000 bill to fit all new cells and door locks, the Birmingham Post reported, citing a jail officer who declined to be named. G4S declined to comment when contacted by the Post after that incident.

In response to the current report, G4S told Channel 4 News “We are encouraged that this report recognises that while there are challenges to overcome at HMP Wolds, the prison also has many strengths.

“We anticipate significant improvements to prisoners’ healthcare following our recruitment of new medical staff and our decision to bring the provision of healthcare in-house. We are working closely with the Primary Care Trust to improve both facilities and provision.

“Since HMIP’s inspection, we have opened a cutting edge technology suite to train prisoners and provide additional purposeful activity. In every prison managed by G4S, the care and welfare of those people in our custody is our top priority.

“We will be examining this report closely to see how we can best take forward its recommendations, where appropriate, and continue to build on the improvements already in progress.”