A report into G4S-managed HM Prison Birmingham published today by
independent
inspectors says that there is a “clear determination” at the
facility to rebuild and make progress
after serious disorder in December last year.
Inspectors from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP)
reported seeing many positive
interactions between staff and prisoners and said that
relationships were generally
“respectful”.
The prison’s population was said to be a “complex mix” with 500
new arrivals each month, the
oldest aged 90 and nearly half of the men unsentenced or serving
less than six months. Men
typically stay at the prison for an average of only six weeks and
while inspectors found a “good
range” of education and training to meet the needs of the
short-term population, they said that
attendance at many of the sessions needed to improve.
Inspectors also said that more needed to be done to tackle the
availability of drugs. The
report recognised the prison’s “good partnership work”
with West Midlands Police, which last
month saw a man charged with using drones to fly drugs into the
facility, and said that like
other prisons, the availability of drugs had increased violence,
debt and bullying. They
reported that prison staff needed to be more consistent in
dealing with poor behaviour and
setting appropriate
boundaries.
The inspection took place six weeks after disturbances in
December 2016, which led to 500
prisoners being moved out to allow four severely damaged wings to
be refurbished. The
report is published in the same week that the damaged wings fully
re-open and the availability
of prison places returns to 1,450, the level before the
disturbance.
Responding to today’s report, the director for HMP Birmingham,
Richard Stedman, who was
appointed in April 2017, said:
“Today’s report is a fair assessment of the very real challenges
we face at HMP Birmingham.
Like many other local city-centre prisons, we are a target for
organised crime gangs who try to
smuggle drugs into our facility. Drones are a constant threat and
although we have a strong
partnership with West Midlands Police to prosecute those who try
to get contraband in, we are
looking at new technology to help us to thwart this pernicious
trade that undermines safety and
feeds violence, debt and bullying.
“We are also committed to recruiting additional prison officers
and by September we are
aiming to have 30 more prison officers than our target for the
establishment. We have also
changed the regime to improve staff and prisoner safety. These
measures will help us to
reduce staff turnover, set firm boundaries for prisoners and
improve consistency in challenging
poor or unacceptable behaviour by those who turn to violence.
“We are resolute in our determination to move on, make progress
and not be defined by
December’s disorder and this week the prison returns to its full
operational capacity. Many
prisoners will stay at Birmingham for only a very short amount of
time and we are committed to
ensuring they go on to other prisons or released into the
community more willing to engage
positively with others and less likely to turn to crime.”
Ends
