Big interview: The prison system watchdog - Anne Owers, chief inspector of prisons
Tom Lloyd
Wednesday, February 9, 2005
Three and a half years later, Owers has just issued an annual report on the state of prisons and, true to form, she hasn't minced her words.
She says there has been progress, but that prisons are "perilously close to full capacity".
She is particularly concerned about young people held in custody, especially in light of recent teenage deaths in prison (YPN, 26 January-1 February, p5). "You have to ask whether prison is the right place for some of these very disturbed young people," she says.
One of the things that she is pressing for very hard is a child-focused environment, particularly for under-18s. "These are children - they are difficult and damaged children - but they are still children under domestic and international law," says Owers. "You have got to have an appropriate regime that recognises the problems of adolescent behaviour."
She is also concerned about procedures such as forcible strip searching, especially as evidence suggests that many children and young people going into prison have been physically or sexually abused. "The first thing we do to them when they enter is to strip search them," says Owers. "In some institutions they can even be forcibly stripped. What is that saying and doing to a young person who has been the subject of abuse, when two men hold him or her down and forcibly remove their clothes?" she asks.
"It is in situations such as this that you always need to balance the interests of the child against the necessity of doing something, and to make sure that you have got the balance right."
To improve the support for young people in prison, Owers is keen to involve more outside agencies, although her report notes that the involvement of Connexions in prisons is "generally unsatisfactory". Juveniles get support from youth offending teams, but 18- to 21-year-olds do not receive any additional special help.
This neglect of young adult offenders is of particular concern. "Young people over 18 really do get the short straw," says Owers. "As soon as a young person hits 18, they stop being able to access the additional resources that the Youth Justice Board provides, they stop having those additional safeguards of child protection, and they are likely to end up in a much more impoverished regime."
She believes that individual prisons can do a lot to encourage outside agencies to get involved, but there should also be some kind of national plan to stop regional variations.
"Stoke Heath Young Offender Institution has got a good system for over-18s in West Mercia called Connect, which is fronted by the Probation Service," says Owers. "It aims to provide support for young people in prison and after they come out, but it only operates locally. So the young people who come from West Mercia are able to buy into that system, but if you come from Middlesex or Northumberland you are not going to be able to."
Owers may be a less critical commentator on the Prison Service than she was in her days as an activist, but she is clear about what needs to be done.
"Incarceration should be the last resort, not the first," she says. "When we do imprison young people, we should hold them in smaller units, nearer to home and ensure that enough resources are in place, particularly for 18- to 21-year-olds.
"We are still a considerable distance from that. But the good news is the direction of travel is right; it's just very slow, and needs to be maintained."
FYI
- HM Inspectorate of Prisons inspects all Prison Service establishments in England and Wales
- It examines the buildings, treatment of prisoners and anything else requested by the Home Secretary
- The Commission for Social Care Inspection examines secure training centres and local authority secure children's homes.