Chief Inspector of Prisons Condemns High Number of Male Staff at New Hall

Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, has condemned the proportion of male staff at HMP &YOI New Hall. Women report feeling unsafe due to victimisation by staff and there are ‘decency’ issues due to too many male staff. The high proportion of male staff facilitates an “underlying negative staff culture” in which women, especially young women and black and minority ethnic women, are infantilised and victimised. 

 

In addition to victimisation by staff, women reported that male officers entered their rooms without warning. More women reported feeling unsafe in the prison at some time than in other prisons. The report states that there was “no evidence that inappropriate language or attitudes had been challenged by senior officers” and that “many responses to complaints were also disrespectful”. Women in Prison is concerned about the safety of women in a prison where they are reluctant to make complaints due to fear of retaliation:

 

Some women said they had been told staff would find out if they made a complaint about an individual and were therefore reluctant to do so.

 

And where, the report states, women who have made complaints have been encouraged to withdraw them.

 

The Chief Inspector’s key recommendations on this issue are:

 

Managers should develop a clear strategy to deal with the underlying negative staff culture and improve relationships between staff and prisoners, including the development of an effective personal officer scheme.

 

Efforts should be made to increase the proportion of women officers to 78%.

 

Respectful language should be used in wing files, which should be regularly checked by managers and inappropriate comments challenged.

 

Adult women should not be referred to as girls.

 

If the Prison Service continues to employ male staff in contact positions in women’s prison (a practice that international prison rules ban) gender staff ratios that ensure a substantial female staff majority must be adhered to. 

 

The spurious argument that employing male staff provides positive male role models and allows women to develop positive relationships with men must be refuted. A man with control over almost every aspect of women’s day-to-day lives is not a positive role model and the only relationship this normalises is one of male dominance.  

 

Women in Prison is highly critical of the lack of specialist support for the high proportion of women in prison who have experienced domestic violence or sexual abuse. The lack of needs analysis, highlighted by the Chief Inspector, is indicative of the prison service’s failings. A needs analysis is vital to ensuring that the right services are provided to support women experiencing the trauma of previous abuse. Despite the recognition of two gender-specific pathways to reduce reoffending (support for women who have been abused, raped or have experienced domestic violence and support for women who have been involved in prostitution) too little is being done. Women in Prison are calling on the government to make specific provision for women offenders in the National Violence Against Women Strategy, currently being drafted. In particular Women in Prison wants a commitment to provide specialist, women-only support and advocacy services in all women’s prisons, which are safely run, appropriately monitored or evaluated, sustainably funded and allow for continuity of support on release (i.e. through the gate support), including one-to-one and, where appropriate, group-based interventions. 

 

The report notes that the mental health in-reach team have poor links with community mental health teams based further from the prison. Women in Prison have raised the impact of distance from home on mental health care for women in response to the Bradley Report (a review of people with mental health problems or learning disabilities in the criminal justice system).

 

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