Stocken

Response
I understand the Board’s concerns around the maintenance and upkeep for all prisons. The Ministry of Justice continues a rolling programme of fire safety improvements, capital investment and major maintenance investment throughout each financial year across the estate. HMP Stocken has been successful in obtaining funding for roof repairs to most of the flat roofed buildings within the site. The old kitchen will also have its roof replaced leading to it being converted into a new gymnasium and the Reception Centre has recently had roof repairs completed with a full redecoration due to be completed.

Response
I appreciate the Board’s concerns about access to secure mental health facilities. I can confirm that the Government and we at the Ministry of Justice are working with the Department of Health and Social Care to introduce a Mental Health Bill as soon as possible. This will include a range of reforms to support and improve access to mental health care for patients in the Criminal Justice System so that those affected get the timely care they need. It is also acknowledged that there are pressures on mental health services nationally and in response, NHS England Health and Justice National team are working strategically across the systems to improve pathways. Responsibility for the commissioning of secure mental health beds rests with Mental Health Provider Collaboratives in each region. NHS England will continue to escalate to them the demands for places within the prison population. NHS England Health and Justice Midlands Teams continues to maintain oversight of long waits and access to secure inpatient treatment in a mental health hospital. Delays have been escalated to the Provider Collaboratives and Mental Health Specialised Commissioners both regionally and nationally, given this is a widespread issue. Fortnightly muti-agency calls are held and chaired by the NHS England Health and Justice Midlands Team to support prioritisation of patients and expedite transfers. A national data exercise is underway to determine the scale of demand and waiting times for all patients. Once completed, further delivery actions can then be agreed.

Response
HMPPS notes the Board’s concerns about property when a prisoner transfers establishments. The emphasis must remain on prisoners complying with volumetric control limits, since any property within these limits will be transferred with them. This includes items which are exempt from volumetric control, such as legal papers. It is simply not possible to transfer with a prisoner all excess property which they might have accrued above these limits. There has been a requirement since the introduction of the Prisoners’ Property Policy Framework for prisons to transfer any excess items within four weeks. Previously, there was no time limit in place. HMPPS is aware of the problems around property and continues to look at what further can be done. The introduction of the digitally recorded Prisoner Escort Record (dPER) including a property section that accurately records the number and type of sealed property ‘owned’ by and transferred with the prisoner and an accurate record of property handover between different Stakeholders. This is now embedded as business as usual. The digital process has assisted with investigations for property that is lost in transit with Prisoner Escort Custody Services (PECS) supplier however, PECS receive few complaints for lost property overall and often the issue is not attributed to the PECS Supplier. PECS review complaints during monthly formal meetings with the PECS Supplier. During the last 12 months there have been no complaints received from HMP Stocken in relation to the loss of property attributed to PECS. For property delay, in-line with the HMPPS Prisoner Property Framework if the limit of items allowed in possession has been reached, and if there is no space on the Escort Vehicle to transport items safely and securely, then responsibility for transfer of any remaining items remains with the sending prison.

Response
Currently there is no approved bid to refurbish, renovate or extend the CSU. Recent mould issues have been addressed and a shower area is being repaired by the on-site maintenance team. Planned and reactive maintenance tasks in the CSU will continue to be completed. Locally, to ensure HMP Stocken manage the population effectively within the CSU, they continue to have a weekly segregation unit meeting to discuss all prisoners located on the unit, including any exit strategies. The Offender Management Unit (OMU) team work closely with other prisons to look at segregation unit transfers. They continue to keep the CSU clean and decent, with 2 orderlies in place, and regularly review the redecoration of the unit.

Response
HMPPS continues to strive to maintain offender flows in the face of ongoing population pressures across the entire adult male prison estate. The remand population continues to grow to unprecedented levels because of the courts backlog, and previous industrial action taken by the Criminal Bar Association and the impact is being felt in the training estate. The convicted unsentenced population has also had a direct impact on spaces in reception prisons. The recent change in legislation to automatically release certain Standard Determinate Sentenced prisoners after serving 40% of their sentences will provide some relief in the prison population. HMP Stocken is a category C training prison accepting prisoners with more than 16 months time left to serve and therefore a national resource. HMP Stocken could receive transfers from anywhere, however, where practicable, prisoners are accommodated as close as possible to their resettlement home probation region to maintain family ties. Whilst this is a priority, it is not always possible due to a variety of factors including wider population pressures, for example London having a very small training capability which results in transfers to training prisons that are out of region, security concerns or where prisoners have specific sentence planning needs which can only be met at certain establishments. There are no plans to change the functionality of HMP Stocken and where the population allows, the prison will be supported with transferring their resettlement cohort to prisons that best serve their resettlement needs where operational capacity allows. There is no change to the offender flows in prisons in England and Wales, however it has been necessary to hold resettlement men in training prisons, including HMP Stocken, for a longer period as a direct result of the population pressures and to minimise expensive lock outs in police cells under Operation Safeguard. This Government recognises the pressure that HMPPS is operating in, and while Standard Determinate Sentences (SDS40) will provide some temporary relief in the prison population, the priority remains to maximise capacity in reception prisons to enable them to serve the courts, to encourage prisons to support offender flows and to ensure as much as possible that the rehabilitation needs of each prisoner is met and protected. Locally, HMP Stocken have a family strategy in place to help support prisoners with maintaining family ties. Lincolnshire Action Trust are currently running Far from Home Support Groups for prisoners who do not receive social visits. Additionally, the Chaplaincy team are in the process of setting up an official visitor’s scheme for prisoners who do not have social links in the community. With the opening of Oakham wing, which is planned to be HMP Stocken’s long-term unit, they have requested a survey of Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection sentenced prisoners to look at the needs around social visitors, their frequency and the proportion who have no visitors. They are also looking at ways to enhance Secure Video Calls with the possibility of having hubs on each residential wing and increasing the number of stations available.

Response
Commissioned Rehabilitative Services (CRS) provision supports people to access existing statutory and voluntary services as well as delivering some support themselves. The following services are currently available to people on probation and sentenced people in custody in the East Midlands Probation region, where HMP Stocken is located; Accommodation and Personal Wellbeing. HMPPS are extending the contracts for CRS Accommodation (men) to remanded and unsentenced people in prison. This includes those un-convicted, convicted but unsentenced and those who are un-convicted, held on remand and then acquitted. Referrals to a CRS service can be made via community probation practitioners or prison-based pre-release teams. Whilst HMP Stocken is not a mandatory location for CRS Providers, referrals can be made on behalf of men held there. Regional Probation Directors (RPDs) are responsible for the delivery of pre-release team services with key interventions delivered by CRS providers, commissioned by RPDs. All resettlement prisons including locals, should have an embedded pre-release team provision (managed by or otherwise linked to a Probation Delivery Unit (PDU). Where embedded staff are not in place alternative arrangements must be agreed by the senior operational leads from prison and probation (RPD and Prison Group Director). Locally, HMP Stocken have continued to release on average 20 prisoners per month over the year. They have submitted several different cases to commercial/contract teams to ensure prisoners being released from Stocken are not disadvantaged. HMP Stocken now have a fully funded employment hub, a banking and Identification admin and have been allocated additional Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) resource in the form of a prison work coach. They have also been allocated 2 full time Creating Future Opportunities (CFO) case workers for prisoners with multiple resettlement needs nearing release. Prison leaders continue to explore opportunities to improve the services available and this year are adding a ‘life skills’ course for prisoners in their release/parole window to develop their knowledge and skills in terms of independent living, renting, use of modern technologies, etc.