Tuesday 10 August 2010

Another Good Idea Watered Down By Target Culture

If turning out genuinely rehabilitated prisoners who do not go on to commit serious offences once released is the stated aim of the British prison system – and why wouldn't it be? – then HMP Grendon has been a success for 48 years.
And this chap should know. He’s a former inmate.
For this reason, the death of Robert Coello, a 44-year-old convicted paedophile, at the prison in Buckinghamshire, could be just what HM Prison Service has been waiting for. The institution is very expensive to run, costing between £45,000 to £50,000 per prisoner a year, as opposed to £38,000 in other male category-B prisons. This doesn't please the bean-counters at the Ministry of Justice, nor does Grendon's success show the rest of the prison system in a good light.
That difference in cost seems to me to be minor, if it effects a real change.

Surely a recidivist costs society far, far more than the £7000 to £12000 difference in the long run?
All inmates at Grendon are volunteers and before entering the therapeutic regime they used to be vetted by probation and psychology staff to ascertain their genuine desire to change, and given an IQ test to ensure they were intelligent enough for the daily cognitive group therapy sessions.
Ah, I see. So they are selecting those most likely to benefit. Surely, that’s sensible? Even the late, unlamented government has to have seen the benefit in th...

Oh:
Before this murder there had never been a serious violent incident at Grendon. That it has happened now is, sadly, no surprise. Until 2002 Grendon had a waiting list of approximately 200 prisoners. And then HMP Dovegate, a privatised prison in Staffordshire, opened its own therapy unit and took those prisoners who had been waiting for Grendon. Unfortunately, the opening of Dovegate, and other smaller therapy units throughout the prison system, had the effect of forcing Grendon to compete for "customers" in a market where it was once the sole provider. This meant Grendon had to significantly lower its once strict acceptance criteria.
Hmmm, 2002. Remind me, who was running the Home Office when that decision was taken?
Other jails were now doing Grendon's job a lot cheaper, albeit with nowhere near its success rate. So some things had to change.

The first thing to be quietly phased out was the "drug-free" rule. Previously, in order to even get on to the induction wing at Grendon, an inmate had to prove – via mandatory drug testing – that he was at least six months clear of any drug use, including psychotropic prescription drugs.
Oh oh…
It was still against the constitution to take drugs at Grendon, but now exceptions were being made for some prescription medication, and men were getting off the prison transports still under the influence of heroin.
/facepalm
Gone was the battery of interviews, and even the IQ test was dropped.
/doublefacepalm
By the time I left Grendon, getting there was as simple as expressing mild interest to a probation officer or psychologist.
Oh, FFS..!

So, let's look at what happened here. The Home Office, under a Labour government, had a system that worked, that rehabilitated prisoners (something they claim is the main purpose of prison, as far as I can see) and they weren't content with that, oh no.

They just had to tinker, to meddle, to attempt to have that same success elsewhere, with no understanding, it seems, of exactly why they were getting that success here...
A prison-based therapy unit can only function effectively if the inmate volunteers have a genuine desire to change, and without safeguards at the induction stage there is no way of weeding out the wasters.
Well, we certainly weeded out some of our wasters, at the General Election.

Can we hope the new lot of wasters we elected instead will reverse this disastrous decision?

10 comments:

Bucko said...

"They just had to tinker, to meddle, to attempt to have that same success elsewhere, with no understanding, it seems, of exactly why they were getting that success here..."
Sounds like evry Labour policy for the last 13 years. They just cant help meddling

Nick2 said...

As a taxpayer, I'd prefer to pay up to 25% more per lag per annum IF he was unlikely to offend again. Wonder what Grendon's recidivism rate was compared to the average UK prison's? Also, how does it compare now? Spending lots more on that prison doesn't make sense if it's success rate has dropped off.

Maybe Grendon's failure was to hide its relative success under a bushel - if it was better known by the public (rather than just those in the criminal justice realm) then it may have had more defenders.

However, seeing as the article that you quoted from is in the Grauniad, perhaps this is the prison administration's first shot across the Prison Service's bows...

English Viking said...

I sense a little deception going on here.

I notice that the article claims that Grendon had a better rate of rehabilitation than 'ordinary' jails, but doesn't give any figures. It is also pertinent that, previously, inmates needed to volunteer, take and pass an examination, quit drugs and show a real determination to change in order to be accepted at this prison. In doing so, they are showing that they are just the kind of people for whom prison does work, even before they go to the 'special prison'. They will also tilt the illusive rehab figures in favour of Grendon, as an inmate who has clearly shown a desire to change is moved from an ordinary jail (leaving it with a greater percentage of recidivists) to Grendon, leaving that particular jail with an inmate population of exam-passing, drug free and obviously repentant inmates. No wonder it worked such miracles.

I remember seeing a documentary on Colchester Military Prison. Of the soldiers not dishonourably discharged at the end of their sentences, the re-offending rate was 4%. Why not run all prisons like this?

ivan said...

I know this is not the place but I can't find a contact address on the site.
I thought this might be of interest to you.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/10/salford_search_marketing/

Angry Exile said...

Surprise, surprise. The successful are dragged slowly down to the median and equality is achieved, as per Labour plans in almost all areas of life. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

blueknight said...

On the subject of prisoner rehabiltation, perhaps it was no coincidence that Clockwork Orange was on TV last night.

JuliaM said...

"They just cant help meddling"

It remains to be seen if the coalition will be any different, hough.

"Spending lots more on that prison doesn't make sense if it's success rate has dropped off."

Quite.

"In doing so, they are showing that they are just the kind of people for whom prison does work, even before they go to the 'special prison'."

Indeed. But then, sorting the sheep from the goats is vital.

"I know this is not the place but I can't find a contact address on the site."

Yes, I keep meaning to put an email link in. Maybe I'll do it when I get around to looking in-depth at those new templates.

Thanks for the link. Interesting article.

"Surprise, surprise. The successful are dragged slowly down to the median and equality is achieved, as per Labour plans in almost all areas of life."

They are indeed the Party of Hobbling, aren't they?

"On the subject of prisoner rehabiltation, perhaps it was no coincidence that Clockwork Orange was on TV last night."

Heh!

Anonymous said...

the police, justice system and plethora of forms of punishment for crimes can only work if the individuals responsible for providing the services they provide are encouraged, willing and able to deliver desired results.
equally criminals can only truly be rehabilitated if they want to be and they are given the opportunity to do so as opposed to following some program that reduces their punishment.
catching criminals is separate from stopping caught criminals from re-offending regardless of the offenders desire which is also separate from genuine rehabilitation.
a good example of widely misunderstood cause and effect is the use of torture in gaining information from a subject. Torture, you see, is particularly ineffective, a human response to torture is basic animal survival and the quality of information gained using these methods is particularly poor and there is a mountain of evidence to suggest that the more severe the torture these less reliable the information gained.
So when the police can, will and are encouraged to catch criminals and gather evidence of their activities we might see criminals in court with the evidence to prosecute them. The state of affairs is that they are not willing, able or encouraged to do this. It is their own career that they are generally concerned with, meeting targets rather than reacting to the situation in the area they operate. Finally, given the tools and training to raise tax by increasing revenue from fines and demonstrate actions that affirm the public perception of a safer community keeping government in power but not tackling crime itself.
this complete breakdown of the systems and individuals responsible for protecting the public from crime has also crept into health services. We are now left with a few good men and women fighting against a system that is not concerned with health as its main priority. It all about efficiency and image.

This is why we have a newspaper seller beaten to death by a copper who faces no real or proportionate consequences for his actions, a student chased and gunned down while bombers successfully run amok, Swedish twins who clearly required medical attention left to stab a good Samaritan to death after going through a system that asks 'is the subject fit to be interviewed, held....' but is not concerned with what happens on release and the public are perused as criminals when it is clear they have only ever tried to defend themselves from criminals.

Anonymous said...

the police, justice system and plethora of forms of punishment for crimes can only work if the individuals responsible for providing the services they provide are encouraged, willing and able to deliver desired results.
equally criminals can only truly be rehabilitated if they want to be and they are given the opportunity to do so as opposed to following some program that reduces their punishment.
catching criminals is separate from stopping caught criminals from re-offending regardless of the offenders desire which is also separate from genuine rehabilitation.

JuliaM said...

"... Swedish twins who clearly required medical attention left to stab a good Samaritan to death after going through a system that asks 'is the subject fit to be interviewed, held....' but is not concerned with what happens on release ..."

Oh, damn! I knew there was something I meant to tape!