Dartmoor

Likewise, I was also pleased to hear about the good work of the Safety and Intervention team in supporting the most vulnerable prisoners, a debt advisory committee established to manage the welfare of prisoners and, the steps being taken to develop equality and diversity.

A revised drug strategy has been produced and quality assured by the national Drug Strategy Team (DST). Noted actions developed from this strategy have been about improving staff learning on searching, display of staff and visitor notices and re-introduction of drug strategy meetings with wider involvement from other functions across the prison. The regional drug lead has been in regular contact with the national DST and has requested a visit in 2021 from their Diagnostic Team. The DST hopes to facilitate the visit once Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted. HMP Dartmoor’s Security team and the Police Intelligence team will continue to work closely together to disseminate intelligence strands and plan effective drug interventions. The Governor will notify the Board of any new security developments that may occur over the next reporting period.

As mentioned in the response to the Board in May 2020, an additional £22 million per annum has been invested over the remaining life of the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) contracts to enhance the Through the Gate (TTG) service. Since this response, the National Probation Service has improved commissioning rates and set minimum levels of funding for their commissioning of TTG services from CRCs for those people leaving non-resettlement prisons. If any delay is identified in assessing a prisoner's resettlement needs prior to release, a robust system is now in place to remind Community Offender Managers to commission such services. Some adjustments have been made to processes whilst staff observe the current Exceptional Delivery Model for TTG services, to take into account reduced access to prisons, prisoner contact and revised safe systems of work during this pandemic. As the Board is already aware, by 2023 reconfiguration will increase the number of training and resettlement places in the adult male estate. The combination of reconfiguration and new prisons will create much needed category B and C training places and ensure there are sufficient resettlement places to enable the vast majority of prisoners, including men convicted of sexual offences (MCOSO), to be released from a resettlement prison, closer to home. It is recognised that moving prisoners into the resettlement estate will give them a greater opportunity to rebuild or reinforce their relationships with friends and family prior to release. Although the flows support the movement of all men, regardless of type of offence, the way MCOSOs move through the system is largely dependent on new resettlement capacity coming on line, beginning with the opening of HMP Five Wells in 2022, the Category C adult resettlement prison in Wellingborough. The impact of the pandemic continues to be a challenge to the movement of prisoners around the estate. In particular, this has impacted on moves between training and resettlement prisons, as there is a building operational pressure within reception prisons to maintain enough space to service the courts. HMPPS hopes as the situation with the pandemic eases over the coming year, prisoner transfers and progression to resettlement prisons will improve.