Oakwood

The Director should ensure that the recommendations made by Instructors relating to the use of force are fully implemented.

The Director should consider a request to HMPPS for upgrade of the shower and toilet facilities and an upgrade of the shower curtains and fittings in the cells.

Following concerns expressed in last year’s AR, the Director should consider again, how to ensure that staff enforce the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) across all houseblocks and ensure the regular availability of appropriate cleaning materials so that the serveries are maintained to a more consistent standard of hygiene and cleanliness.

The Director and Head of Healthcare should review the positioning of the health complaints boxes to ensure better access to them by prisoners.

At the prison an appropriate system and subsequent follow up should be put in place to ensure that this does not happen.

The Director should ensure that officers are present at the medicine hatches during the dispensing of medication.

The Director should ensure that all instances of missing property are quickly followed up and that the checking of phone numbers is done as soon as possible.

It is unfortunate and regrettable that prisoners’ property continues to be an issue. The development of the new Prisoners’ Property Policy Framework involved a large project undertaken in summer 2019. Following the conclusion of the project, HMPPS has worked closely with stakeholders to consult on proposed changes to the policy. Discussions ahead of consultation with IMB members began with the IMB Secretariat in late February 2020, who proposed meetings take place with Board members in April. In light of the pressures placed on Boards by Covid-19, HMPPS agreed with the IMB Secretariat to pause this consultation until August and September. This work is now moving forward again and the feedback received from IMB members at these meetings will then be considered alongside the comments received earlier this year from other stakeholders, with the intention that the revised draft policy framework will be circulated for wider consultation at the end of 2020. The new Prisoner Escort and Custody Service 4 Generation contract also began during August 2020 with a new fleet of vehicles which allow for an additional half box of consumable items to the limit of 7.5kg to be carried for each prisoner on top of the existing agreed volumetric limits. In addition to this, HMPPS is looking at what more can be done to encourage prisoners to send out or dispose of excess items to reduce the amount of property that cannot transfer with them. Steps are also being taken to ensure there is a consistent approach when prison staff forward on any excess items to prisoners at their new establishment after a transfer has taken place.

The Board feels that there should be a national Ministry of Justice directive in relation to the management, accountability and transfer of property across the prison estate.

It is unfortunate and regrettable that prisoners’ property continues to be an issue. The development of the new Prisoners’ Property Policy Framework involved a large project undertaken in summer 2019. Following the conclusion of the project, HMPPS has worked closely with stakeholders to consult on proposed changes to the policy. Discussions ahead of consultation with IMB members began with the IMB Secretariat in late February 2020, who proposed meetings take place with Board members in April. In light of the pressures placed on Boards by Covid-19, HMPPS agreed with the IMB Secretariat to pause this consultation until August and September. This work is now moving forward again and the feedback received from IMB members at these meetings will then be considered alongside the comments received earlier this year from other stakeholders, with the intention that the revised draft policy framework will be circulated for wider consultation at the end of 2020. The new Prisoner Escort and Custody Service 4 Generation contract also began during August 2020 with a new fleet of vehicles which allow for an additional half box of consumable items to the limit of 7.5kg to be carried for each prisoner on top of the existing agreed volumetric limits. In addition to this, HMPPS is looking at what more can be done to encourage prisoners to send out or dispose of excess items to reduce the amount of property that cannot transfer with them. Steps are also being taken to ensure there is a consistent approach when prison staff forward on any excess items to prisoners at their new establishment after a transfer has taken place.