Plans to allow prisoners to work 40-hour week are ‘impractical’

Prison officers warn of insufficient staff numbers to oversee justice secretary’s proposals for improving inmate rehabilitation Plans to enable prisoners to work 40 hours a week inside jail are impractical because there is insufficient staff levels to oversee them, prison officers have warned the government. Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, told MPs the proposals for improving rehabilitation have not been allocated adequate resources. Giving evidence at the committee stage of the legal aid, sentencing and punishment of offenders bill, Gillan said: “We are broadly supportive of prisoners working but it has got to be meaningful. You have to look at the situation where companies may be laying people off outside and setting up workshops in prison.” In one jail holding 1,000 inmates, there were workshop places for only 30 prisoners at a time, Gillan explained. “We were very surprised when Ken Clarke [the justice secretary] announced that it would be 40 hours a week. There’s not the space or resources. Prison officers only work a 39-hour week. We believe, and there’s evidence to show, that the prison population will not fall as fast as envisaged and there’s still a £130m hole in the Ministry of Justice’s budget.” But Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, welcomed the government’s proposals, suggesting inmates might even one day operate call centres from behind prison walls. “I see that BT has brought back its call centres from abroad,” she told MPs, “It could be that sort of work that could be done in prison, but it has to be run by outside businesses. “I have campaigned for work inside prisons for 15 years. Long-term adult prisoners should have the opportunity to do work, to contribute to society and to pay tax.” She doubted, however, whether legislation was necessary to give prisoners the opportunity to work because the powers already existed. “The only way savings can be made,” she said, “is by closing down institutions and switching to community [sentences] that will prevent people from reoffending.” At the start of the session the opposition accused the Ministry of Justice of trying to railroad through the bill and of failing to make enough time available for evidence to be heard. The Conservative MP Ben Wallace accused Labour members of “the pot calling the kettle black”, claiming bills had regularly been pushed through without adequate examination by the previous Labour administration. Prisons and probation Kenneth Clarke UK criminal justice Work & careers Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 12, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.