HMP Wandsworth
“It is only through better rehabilitation that we will reduce reoffending, cut crime and make our streets safer”(JUSTICE SECRETARY MICHAEL GOVE, 2015)
In wishing to explore further what actions UK prisons are currently taking to rehabilitate inmates, I interviewed an officer from HMP Wandsworth. Officer Hemstead works in Wing – C, which houses vulnerable prisoners (VPU’s), mainly sex offenders, people with learning difficulties, transgender and famous people.
Wandsworth Prison is currently the UK’s biggest and most overcrowded institution (GENTLEMAN, 2017). It was first built in Victorian 1851, and in 1989 the prison had an extensive refurbishment and modernisation of all the wings. Sanitation, privacy screens and, more recently, electricity was installed in the cells. Today it holds 1877 category B prisoners. The Radial-designed prison has five wings, each with four landings, designed to separate and “warehouse” inmates. Their original arrangement was apprehended to provide a regime focused on prisoner reflection and purposelessness (HENLEY, 2003)
Recently Wandsworth has been given a staggering budget cut from approximately £30 million in 2010 to £21 million this year. This has resulted in severe staffing shortages resulting in the number of staff per inmate has dropping by 15 percent. With an increase in prisoners and a fall in staffing, prisoner’s are not getting the restorative support they require to rehabilitate. Since 2010 there have been 12 suicides at Wandsworth, “We would love to be able to give prisoners a lot more time and care but with the cuts we aren’t able to give them that time” said Adrian Thomas, one of the people in charge of preventing suicides (GENTLEMAN, 2017)
background
design
The Victorian building was originally only meant to house 963 men, it now holds double this. With numbers still on the rise, two-man cells could turn to three-man, an action some UK prisons have already started taking. The VPU wing under Officer Hemstead’s supvervision has the only medication hatch - “On my wing we have a medication hatch on the wing, but other wings don’t have them, so they’ll have to leave their wing to get their meds. This can be confusing because you don’t always know what wing they’re from”(HEMSTEAD, 2017)
Officer Hemstead also describes other flaws with the prisons layout that makes her job harder- “Two of the wings don’t have exercise as well, so on my wing they can walk straight in to the yard, whereas on others they have to walk through the jail to get to a yard. Which can cause problems, because if other prisoners are out and you don’t know if they are meant to be outside or not”. This further highlights the difficulties with funding and the lack of staff.
The radial design also brings flaws “The wings are really long, mine is the longest in Europe, when there’s 250 men out and something happens down the other end, its going to take you a while to get down there and get control of it. Therefore its hard to see what’s going on all the time”. With more officers on hand to support, problems like this could be helped.
The 6ft x 8ft cells have a steel framed bunk bed, with a desk, chair, and television. The toilet, placed on the back wall for plumping puposses, is a few feet from where the inmates lay there heads. This can have an impact of their health due to the lack of hygiene. Inmates also have to eat in their cells. The thick victorian walls make ventilation of air through out the building very poor. “Each cell window has three narrow transparent panels and most cells have at least one broken panel” (GENTLEMAN, 2017). With windows an additional cost, fixing them is a low priority, resulting in inmates stuffing the cavities with duvets, towels and even flattened milk cartens in order to keep out the cold. Poor ventilation is known to cause health risks that can develop into serious illnesses. Low levels of oxygen and high levels of carbon dioxide can cause fatigue. As the prison is so overcrowded and they are exposed to constent biological and chemical contaminants, these can cause poor quality of indoor air. This can leave the person in that environment suffering from headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, coughing, hypersensitivity and allergies, sinus congestion dizziness, and nausea (BUSINESS, 2017)
Small windows that are triple glazed with bars on restrict the natural light entering the cell. However this problem has also affected the staff “There’s only one small window in our staff room, and all windows have to be triple glazed with bars on so you don’t get much light, so we have to use artificial light which isn’t as good” Officer Hemstead states “We’d definitely benefit from more natural light”(HEMSTEAD, 2017). This can negatively affect staff performances and according to Dr John Ott’s research cause behavioural issues such as aggressiveness.
The daily routine of a Wandsworth prison inmate starts at 8:00am. People who are on medication are the first out, the those who go to work “such as the people who are doing the radio station or go and do their education classes or training courses”(HEMSTEAD, 2017).Inmates return to their cells at around 11:00am where their lunch is delivered to them. After lunch they return to work, or the ones that don’t go to work have association. This is when they go for showers and go for exercise in the yard. “Then when they come in we do the evening meals, medications. Then at about half 6 they all get banged up and that’s it for the night”(HEMSTEAD, 2017).
For those who don’t work or have educational lessons to attend will be locked up for 23 hours a day. This is thought to be about one-third of inmates at Wandsworth due to the lack of staff manage them(GENTLEMAN, 2017). Staying in a confined space for long periods of time can have a huge effect on inmates mental well being. The inmates also only get half an hour a day during the week, and on weekends an hour in the yard (HEMSTEAD, 2017). Limiting the time the inmates have in communal areas will create a lack of interaction and communication between imates and staff. “You can tell when they’re gong to be more angry, for example if there has been a day where they haven’t come out at all, it completely understandable that they are going to be pissed off when they do come out. If you go two men in an 8” x 6” cell its going to get frustrating. You get it some times, I understand why they are doing it” (HEMSTEAD, 2017).
Day-to-Day life
preparation for release
“Theres lots of volunteers that come in and help them find housing if you’re homeless, and do courses with them on how to handle their money. We also do sex offender courses and general classes like maths and English. We can also help them get their Gcse’s, training to help them get jobs when they come out” (HEMSTEAD, 2017)
In a bid to reduce reoffending, HMP Wandsworth has provided oppurtunistic training and education for inmates. The courses available include English, Mathematics, ICT, Bricklaying, Tiling, Plastering, Plumbing, Painting, Industrial Cleaning and waste management, Catering, Horticulture, and Tailoring. Inmates also have access to a Radio programme, with production skills are provided by Wandsworth’s; Radio Wanno. The Physical Education Department offer a full range of National Open College Network courses. Offender behaviour programmes are provided by CARATS. CARAT stands for Counseling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare. They work within prisons providing drug treatment programmes. Included in their specialist care, is drug rehabilitation programmes and external Drugs Intervention Teams. Providing guidance and advice, they act as a refferal group to other organisations. Within Wandworth they offer one-to-one support with inmates (RED SNAPPER GROUP), (GOV, 2017).
Background Wandsworth Prison Cell: Fig 3