Killers put in open prisons to ease overcrowding

[Teddy Bear]

Happy New Year Everyone

It would be nice to start the year with positive events, but apart from the hanging of Saddam, none other come to mind. With the echo of Labours' "Tough on crime..." in my ears, I read this =


Killers in open prisons to ease overcrowding
By Ben Fenton
Last Updated: 1:46am GMT 01/01/2007

Probation officers yesterday accused the Home Office of bending the rules so that violent offenders, including murderers and paedophiles, are transferred into open prisons to ease overcrowding.

They said that inappropriate reclassification of prisoners from Category A, B or C, all of whom have to be behind secure prison walls, to Category D, which allows them into one of the nine open jails in England and Wales, are occurring on a daily basis.


Attempts to reduce prison overcrowding have ‘backfired’
Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said his members believed it was being done on instructions from the Home Office to fill spaces in open prisons and ease the pressure on the rest of the prison system.

"We warned the Home Office last summer that pushing more prisoners into open conditions would backfire," Mr Fletcher said.

"Despite their claims to the contrary, probation staff are stating clearly now that prisoners who are not suitable are being routinely reclassified."

The claims, in a Napo report, follow the announcement in October that open prisons and police cells would be part of a new initiative by John Reid, the Home Secretary, to reduce overcrowding in the short-term although he said that public safety would remain paramount.

Probation officers in five of Britain's nine open prisons reported that they were receiving an average of one to two inappropriate referrals every week and they believed that the rules were being changed.

Officers accuse the Home Office of having set targets for Category B and C prisons to reclassify and transfer to open jails.

They said the views of probation officers in local communities were often "bypassed" by officials from the Population Management Service of the Home Office, who are accused of putting the reduction of overcrowding before public safety.

The Napo report was supported by the Prison Officers' Association.

Brian Caton, the POA general secretary, said: "Risk assessment is now less rigorous and decisions are being made more on the basis of expediency than public safety.

"Isn't it odd that a few months ago there were 500 spaces in open prisons which we couldn't fill because there weren't appropriate prisoners to put there and now most of those spaces seem to have disappeared?"

Violence and drug use are on the increase in open jails, Mr Caton added.

A Home Office spokesman said there were no targets and there had been no change in criteria used for assessments, but officials were always looking at the composition of those in the prisons system.

"That is always done with public safety foremost in one's mind," the spokesman added.

Absconding from open prisons is also reported to be at its highest level for 10 years, with about 719 escapes last year.

That means there were two prisoners going on the run every day.