Monitoring the Work of Prisons

There are a number of ways in which prisons are monitored, with a view to ensuring that they are run securely and safely, with the welfare of both prisoners and staff as a prime concern. These include the Independent Monitoring Board, formerly called the Board of Visitors, which are independent watchdogs with a membership drawn from the local community but appointed by the Minister to monitor the welfare of staff and prisoners and the state of the premises. There is also the Prison and Probation Ombudsman, who is an independent point of appeal for prisoners.

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, who is currently Anne Owers, is independent of the Prison Service. She reports directly to the government on the treatment of prisoners, the conditions of prisons in England and Wales and other such matters. This is well illustrated by her annual report for 2006/7 in which she concludes that the prisons system of England and Wales is struggling to manage the current pressures and is unlikely to cope with future challenges. She says that despite steady progress in healthcare, offender management and the quality of education provided, the prison population crisis – which she dubs "predicted and predictable" - is having a crippling effect. During the reporting year [September 2006 to August 2007] the prison population went from one all-time high to another, staving off disaster only by a series of short-term, often expensive, emergency measures, together with the crisis management skills of those working within the prison system. She claims indeterminate sentences have 'stranded' inmates in "inappropriate" jails and pushed the population, which currently stands at 80,778, even higher.

The report calls into question the positive effects of larger prisons, police cells, converted army camps or prison ships. Ms Owers, who also notes the "dramatic rise" in self-inflicted deaths, delays to replacing substandard accommodation and the rollout of new drugs treatment programmes, explained: "At a time of severely restricted public funding, there is now a real risk that we will get worse, as well as more, prisons. There are signs of a more effective and measured approach to policy and strategy, some new initiatives, and plenty of good operational practice to build on. But, on the other hand, the risk is that we will move towards large-scale penal containment, spending more to accomplish less, losing hard-won gains and stifling innovation.

The Prison Service also has its own internal monitoring systems:

  • Standards Audit Unit – measures compliance against prison policy and gives ratings for Security & Standards as well as rating each prisons Self-Audit processes. In addition it carries out prisoner consultation exercises called “Measuring the Quality of Prison Life”, which aims to measure just that.
  • Internal Audit – assesses financial compliance and risk management, using the establishment Risk Register.
  • Weighted Scorecard – is used to measure each establishment’s performance against key performance targets and to provide comparative data.

All of the above measures are combined and prisons are awarded a star rating between 1 & 4. Any prison achieving consistent performance at the 4 star level is awarded “high performing” status.