Risley Prison hit by budget cuts

OLDER, infirm prisoners at Warrington’s Risley Prison are being left in their cells for periods of 22 hours because of budget cuts, according to the annual report of the prison’s independent monitoring board.
The prison has responded positively to budget reductions during 2012-2013 and will continue to do so next year, says the report, which goes to the Home Secretary
But managing the cuts take time and effort and inevitably can only damage the regime and its efforts to address offending behaviour.
“The board is aware of financial constraints on the public purse but would stress these cuts need to be limited in order to maintain a safe environment in which to keep prisoners.
“Some prisoners have suffered with the regime cut backs, these mainly being older, infirm prisoners, who have been left in their cells for periods of 22 hours.
“The board would like the Minister to give assurance this will not continue and extra funding will be found to eliminate this practice.”
The board’s report says the residential unit, known as Birchwood unit, which has been mentioned in annual reports for a number of years continues to be over looked.
“The building is well past its sell-by date and continues to present a number of problems causing undue stress to prisoners.
“They include damaged beds, cockroach infestations fluctuating water temperatures causing prisoners to go without showers.”
Televisions do not work well as the aerial system in the building is defective.
“This sort of accommodation is unacceptable to house prisoners and has in the past been brought to the attention of previous ministers. The costs of running such a unit, with its many defects, is a strain on the current budget.”
The board says it has major concerns about the level of purposeful activity, which remains too low. A number of workshops are not getting the correct number of prisoners and are not operating a full capacity.
Despite the efforts of the institution to provide additional facilities, the facilities remain inadequate, with prisoners held in cells for too long.
The board asks that the Minister investigates this shortfall and will make the resources available to allow full time purposeful activity for all prisoners.
“The continued requirement to make savings is having an adverse effect upon staff and prisoners – this is unacceptable and more resources should be given to ensure that prisoners are not left in cells for extended periods.”
There are 17 disabled prisoners in the prison and facilities for them have been improved. There is now a wet room for wheelchair users.
Care and personal evacuation plans are now in place for all prisoners where the prison is aware of need.
Risley is a male, Category C training prison. There are currently 1,076 prisoners held there and the maximum capacity is 1095.
It is estimated that more than 81 per cent of the prison population have substance misuse issues – drug or alcohol related. Just over 15 per cent are classed as foreign nationals, 22 per cent are sex offenders and six per cent are serving mandatory life sentences.
The remaining 50 per cent are serving a variety of sentences, some of which are less than six months. These short sentence offenders provide many challenges to the prison, as it is difficult to provide relevant programmes or training for them.