Contents
1 Brief description of the prison and its function
2 ExecutiveSummary
2.1 Issues for the Minister
2.2 Issues for the Prison Service
2.3 Issues for the Area Manager
3 Significant changes since the last report
3.1 Prisoner Profile
3.2 Increase in education accommodation
3.3 Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners Trust (RAPt) Courses
3.4 Special Committees
4 The treatment of prisoners
4.1 Staff-prisoner relationships
4.2 Healthcare
4.3 Race relations
4.4 Anti-bullying
4.5 Suicide awareness
5 Discipline
5.2 Incentives and earned privileges
6 Re-settlement activities
6.1 Re-settlement Officer
6.2 Sentence Plans
6.3 Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners Trust (RAPt)
6.4 Offending Behaviour Courses
6.5 Education
7 The general regime
7.1 Purposeful activities
7.2 Unlock time
7.3 Industries
8 Examples of good practice
8.1 The Crime Diversion Scheme (formerly known as The Youth Project)
8.2 Listeners
8.3 Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB)
9 The work of the Board
9.1 Rota visits
9.2 Applications made by prisoners to see a Board member.
10 Conclusions
Appendix A - Applications
Appendix B – Adjudications
Appendix C – Board Activities

1 Brief description of the prison and its function

The prison was constructed in 1969 as a prototype industrial prison where prisoners would be employed in a range of occupations. Originally it catered for category B prisoners but was later changed to a category C prison.
There are no remand prisoners at HMP Coldingley. All prisoners are serving sentences of between two years and life and have started their sentence at other prisons. There are up to 50 life sentenced prisoners, most of whom have spent more than a decade in prison. There are also approximately 90 foreign nationals and a similar number of prisoners either preparing for or partaking in or having recently completed the RAPt course.
The prison has a designed capacity for 360 prisoners in single occupancy cells plus 10 prisoners in a special free association unit designed to help prisoners adjust to living in a community prior to their release. Eighteen of the normally single cells are larger than others and with the current prison population pressures these are now frequently used as double cells. This gives the prison a maximum capacity of 388 prisoners.

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2 Executive summary

Over the last 18 months several factors have combined to change the profile of prisoners held at Coldingley. The present high national prison population means that prisoners are being promoted through the system towards open conditions faster than in the past with the result that Coldingley has less control over the character of prisoners being allocated to the prison.

The Board believes the prison authorities have not reacted fast enough to the change in prisoner profile and as a consequence there has been a gradual deterioration in several areas within the prison regime. The Board still believes the regime within the prison is robust but action needs to be taken to check the decline.

As a result of this decline the prison has slipped from being, by the Prison Service’s own standards, among the best in the country to only average.

Areas of particular concern are the increase in the quantity of drugs entering the prison, the number of prisoners found in possession of mobile telephones and the reduction in purposeful hour (hours the average prisoner spends at work or study or recreation).

Whilst Coldingley is still described, by the Prison Service, as an industrial prison, greater emphasis now appears to be being put on education. The Board believes that the work ethos and discipline engendered through participation in the industries with regular hours is an important element in the rehabilitation of a prisoner and should be given equal status with education.

2.1 Issues for the Minister

2.1.1 Response to our last year’s report

The Inspector of Prisons and the Ombudsman both promptly acknowledged receipt of a copy of our last year’s report.

We were, however, disappointed that the Minister, to whom the report was addressed and the Prison Service both chose not to respond to the report. We trust that our efforts in preparing this report will not similarly be ignored.

2.1.2 Industries

Does it remain Prison Service policy to give priority, as a valuable form of resettlement training, to Coldingley’s industrial facilities?

If not, what is the identified purpose of Coldingley, and has that purpose been communicated effectively to Coldingley’s uniformed and civilian staff?

2.2 Issues for the Prison Service

2.2.1 Diversity

There is great diversity amongst prisoners and prisons and we would urge the Prison Service to recognise this when drawing up policies and contracts. This has not always been the case in the past and we would draw to your attention two recent examples.

The prisoners’ telephone access was changed from phone cards to a pin number system. With the old phone card system prisoners had access to companies offering low cost overseas calls. With the new pin number system overseas calls can only be made through BT at call box rates. About 25% of prisoners at Coldingley are foreign nationals and at a stroke the cost of calls to their families was raised by up to 10 times. These are often prisoners with little money and who have no family ties in the UK and therefore this is the only means they have of maintaining voice contact with their families.

The new PSO 1700 – Segregation of Prisoners does not recognise the differences between the various categories of prison and therefore the likely reasons for a prisoner being segregated. It requires a panel of five people plus an IMB member to agree that a prisoner should be segregated for more than 72 hours. At Coldingley prisoners are rarely segregated for any other reason than awaiting transfer to another prison This is always either at their own request because they believe they are at risk from other prisoners or because they have been adjudged to be a disruptive element within a category C prison. They are rarely held for more than a few days and the need to assemble six people is both disruptive to other activities within the prison and generally a waste of the participants’ time. The PSO should have been drafted to recognise this diversity.

2.2.2 Prison occupancy

As reported in our last annual report some of the single cells at Coldingley are, due to prisoner numbers, being occupied by two prisoners albeit on a voluntary basis. Because there are no ‘in-cell’ toilets at Coldingley prisoners have to have their cell doors unlocked (electrically) at night when they require to use the toilet. With single occupancy and the remote locking systems it is possible for the control room to ensure that within a locked area only one prisoner is outside his cell at any one time. With double occupancy the control room cannot be sure that both prisoners are in the cell and this must pose a risk. We urge the Prison Service to revert to single cell occupancy as soon as possible.

2.2.3 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs, by monitoring the performance of the prison in comparison with other prisons and against pre-assigned targets, can be useful tools provided they give clear unambiguous results, are up to date, and are accurate.
In our last report we cast doubts on the accuracy and/or clarity of some KPIs and therefore usefulness of the KPIs as reported. We have not notice any marked improvement and still find the figures confusing to the point that some are either misleading or meaningless. Answers to our questions on this point suggest that the Governor and his staff face the same difficulty. We therefore doubt the value of the vast amount of time spent in compiling such apparently unreliable and unusable figures.

In addition most targets are set based on the previous year’s performance. With the change in profile of prisoners some of the targets are unrealistically high and others too low.

2.2.4 Food allowance

The amount prisons are allowed to spend on food for prisoners has, we understand, not changed for many years and as a result the quality of food has deteriorated. The quality has dropped to the point where some of our prisoners have offered to forego some of their earning if it would mean an improve the quality of food on offer.
One of the few things a prisoner has to look forward to during his day is his food and as food represents less than 2.5% of the total cost of keeping a prisoner in prison a modest increase in the budget would result in a happier prisoner and happier prison.

2.2.5 Prisoners’ Property

The largest cause of complaints to the Board by prisoners related to property lost in the prison system and action needs to be taken to improve the system.

On one occasion it was acknowledged by the Service that they had lost a prisoner’s clothes worth less than £30 but they could not agree which prison was at fault and so should compensate the prisoner. In the end, we understand, the Prison Ombudsman had to make a ruling. The whole process was an absolute farce and an enormous waste of time and money.

2.3 Issues for the Area Manager

2.3.1 Drugs

In his June 2000 report HM Inspector of Prisons recommended the drug issue be given a higher priority. At the time of the report the positive MDTs (mandatory drug tests) at Coldingley were averaging about 10% of those prisoners tested.

For several months now the level of positive MDTs has been nearer to 25% of those tested.
Whilst recognising that there have been several successes in intercepting drugs entering the prison the Board wishes to know what further action the Area Manager proposes to reduce the quantity of drugs entering the prison?

2.3.2 Roll calls

Coldingley has, since it became a category C prison, and as far as the Board are aware, not had a single instance of a prisoner trying to escape from within the prison boundary. Therefore we question the Area Manager’s insistence on increasing the number of roll calls each day and the bureaucratic increase required to monitor prisoner movements. These actions are causing both a disruptive effect on the smooth running of the prison and a reduction in the opportunity for prisoners to be responsible for their own time, which we believe is an important step to their resettlement or transfer to a fully open category D prison. We believe staff time spent on these controls could be better used in other activities.

We would welcome a discussion with the Area Manager about this issue.

2.3.3 Governor’s authority

We are concerned that the Governor’s authority over activities within the prison is slowly being eroded. Several activities are now controlled either directly by the Prison Service using outside agents or through the Area Office and this appears to be a growing trend.

On paper such centralisation can show direct cost saving but we believe that these savings are likely to be eroded in time by hidden increase in other related costs and ‘empire building’ costs.

We believe for the prison to run efficiently the Governor must have final control over and responsibility for most of the activity within the prison. Without this control you are likely to get: -

• Inefficient use of staff because there is not the flexibility to reassign staff to cover short term needs.
• Boredom of staff in departments that are not stretched and stressed out staff in departments that are overworked.
• Power struggles between different departments.
• Areas that fall between departments not being covered properly.
• Departments blaming one another for failures.
• Staff who still report to the Governor being demoralised because they have to pick up the pieces when others opt out.
• And probably worst of all; the prisoners learning how to play the system just as children learn how to play their parents off against one another when the parents are not united.

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3 Significant changes since the last report

In addition to the changes discussed in 2 above the following significant changes have been made during the year.

3.1 Prisoner Profile

The change in prisoner profile is probably the most significant change that has occurred within the prison over the past year.

For prisoners to be suitable for Coldingley and its industries they were previously required to be at least 25 years old; be serving a sentence of more than 4 years; be able to read and write; have no recent drug history and be willing to work. This is no longer the case and prisoners as young as 21 years old; having short sentences; some unable to read and write; with a history of drug taking and being unwilling to work are frequently assigned to Coldingley. Many of them are disruptive, become involved with drugs and frequently have to be returned to a category B prison after just a short stay at Coldingley.

3.2 Increase in education accommodation

To cope with the extra educational needs areas have been reassigned as classrooms and there are some new buildings.

Courses are now run in industrial cleaning and DIY maintenance.

3.3 Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners Trust (RAPt) Courses

One of the four wings, each of which houses 90 prisoners, is now almost entirely given over to prisoners preparing for or undertaking or having recently completed the RAPt course.

3.4 Special Committees

We are disappointed with the functioning of special committees over the past year. Special committees exist for ‘Race Relations’, ‘Equal Opportunities’, ’Anti Bullying’, and ‘Suicide Awareness’. It is not unusual for the meeting date or time to be changed at short notice. The meeting are frequently poorly attended even when the date and time has been scheduled months ahead. Minutes of meeting are often not circulated until just before the next meeting, which does not provide the members who did not attend with information on matters discussed or decisions taken or actions to be followed up. IMB members are invited to attend some of these meetings, an opportunity which we value. But we cannot take it up when meetings are called or changed at little or no notice.
The Race Relations Committee has suffered because there has been no permenant Race Relations Officer; as a result monitoring statistics have not been produced.

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4 The treatment of prisoners

4.1 Staff-prisoner relationships

Most prisoners and staff treat one another with courtesy and respect, however with the change in prisoner profile the atmosphere is less relaxed than reported last year. On the whole staff appear to be sympathetic to prisoners needs but there are occasional incidents where individual members of staff could be more cooperative.

4.2 Healthcare

We are not aware of there being any particular healthcare problems. The length of the waiting list for dental treatment is much improved on a year ago.

The reintroduced smoking policy seems to be working, although there are still transgressors.

4.3 Race relations

Whilst the prison houses prisoners from many nationalities and religions there are remarkably few racial problems. Much of the credit for this must be given to the prison staff.

4.4 Anti-bullying

With the change in prisoner profile and the increase in drug use within the prison there have been more indications of prisoner on prisoner bullying. Whilst this is not yet a major problem any case of bullying is one too many and staff need to be alert to the apparent deteriorating relationships between prisoners.

4.5 Suicide awareness

There have been no cases of prisoners attempting suicide during the last year, and few cases where special precautionary measures have been needed in respect of feared suicide or self-harm.. The Listener System run by the prisoners must take full credit for this result, together with sensitive and humane handling of prisoners by staff.

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5 Discipline

5.1.1 Drugs

The increase in positive drug test results (up from 10% to 25%) over the year is a most disappointing failure, particularly when the results are compared with the results for other similar category C prisons.

No doubt this is in part due to the changing profile of the prisoners but most of the blame must be placed at the door of the prison management that seems very laid back about the deterioration.

We believe much more could be done proactively to detect drugs entering the prison. Most of the major successes in detecting drugs about to enter the prison have been as a result of information received from the general public who have reported suspicious activities outside the prison fence. Much of the prison’s perimeter is bounded by common land.

5.1.2 Segregation

The number of prisoners in the segregation unit for either good order or discipline (GOOD) or at their own request (OR) is an indication of relationships within the prison. These numbers have always been low at HMP Coldingley and the total for the year is similar to last year. However in recent weeks the numbers have been increasing.
69 prisoners spent time in a segregation cell and of these 54 were held on GOOD and 15 on OR, usually because they perceived themselves to be at risk of attack from other prisoners. These figures do not include prisoners serving a period of cellular confinement on the Governor’s orders as a result of a disciplinary adjudication.

5.1.3 Adjudications

About once a month a member of the Board will observe whilst an adjudication is in progress where a prisoner has been charged with a disciplinary offence. It is the opinion of the Board that the adjudications give the prisoner a fair hearing and the correct procedures are followed.

During the year under review some 516 disciplinary charges were laid against prisoners.

The introduction of an Independent Adjudicator of more serious transgressions has caused few problems and seems to be working well, though with some delays for repeated adjournments.

See appendix B for an analysis of the adjudications.

5.2 Incentives and earned privileges

The system appears to be operating as intended.

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6 Re-settlement activities

6.1 Re-settlement Officer

The promised Re-settlement Officer did not appear. But we now know that an Officer has been recruited and is due to start work in the near future.

6.2 Sentence Plans

This is a major area of concern. At the end of the year there were 46 prisoners who had been in prison for periods up to 2½ years without having a sentence plan. The Prison Services commitment is that every prisoner should have a sentence plan prepared within 8-12 weeks of sentence. This is not solely a Coldingley problem because all of the prisoners have come to Coldingley from other prisons but Coldingley are not without blame as some prisoners have been there more than a year.

Part of the problem seems to be the failure of the prisoners’ personal officer scheme. Personal officers are frequently changed and some do not appear to be committed to the system. We have been assured that the backlog will be cleared by the end of the year.

6.3 Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners Trust (RAPt)

This course continues to run reasonably smoothly.

6.4 Offending Behaviour Courses

Coldingley has struggled to achieve the targeted throughput of prisoners on these courses. Action has now been taken to meet the targets.

6.5 Education

Education continues to play a major part in the regime at Coldingley and a number of courses leading to qualifications such as NVQs are undertaken.

As the standard of education of prisoners arriving at Coldingley has dropped the courses have had to be modified to meet the needs of prisoners. This has resulted in some KPI targets being missed whilst others at a lower standard are exceeded.

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7 The general regime

7.1 Purposeful activities

40 hours per week spent in purposeful activity (work, education, etc.) remains the target at Coldingley. The prison failed to meet this target last year and we highlighted this as an area needing urgent action. No effective action has been taken during the year and the actual hour had fallen still further to 33 hour per week at the end of this reporting period.

We also reported last year that this was in part due to the increased numbers of prisoners being held at Coldingley. However the RAPt course accounts for most of the increased number and hours spent on this course should count towards purposeful hours.

Also the manager of the laundry frequently complains to us that he is understaffed because several of the prisoners are attending other activities such as education. We question why he should be understaffed when prisoners are unoccupied on the wings.

Urgent effective action is still needed to improve this important part of the prison regime.

7.2 Unlock time

Prisoners spend on average 12½ hours a day outside their cells on weekdays and 10 hours per day at weekends

7.3 Industries

7.3.1 Laundry

The laundry remains the biggest employer of prisoners within the prison and provides the prisoners with the opportunity to earn the highest wages. It undertakes internal work for the Prison Service as well as a number of external contracts for hospitals, holiday camps, etc. Some replacement equipment was installed during the year.

7.3.2 Sign shop

The sign shop has also been busy throughout the year with work carried out for the Prison Service, a number of military establishments and several outside clients. There was some interruption to work when the electrical system was replaced.

7.3.3 Metalwork shop

Like the sign shop much of the electrical system was replaced during the year and some new equipment installed. This shop produces good quality products especially those requiring the accurate cutting, punching, bending, welding and spray painting of metal plate. Much of the work is for the Prison Service but there is a growing number of outside clients

7.3.4 Contract Services Workshop

A new workshop was opened up during the year to undertake low skilled work such as assembly of simple items.

7.3.5 Catering

The catering department has continued to meet the needs of those requiring special diets for health and religious reasons. Beyond that, they have also provided special quality meals for the festivals of various religions. Unlike last year the Board has received a considerable number of complaints about the quality of food over this year. There was one occasion when the quality was so poor that prisoners staged a boycott for one meal.

7.3.6 The Chaplaincy

The prison’s inmates subscribe to a variety of beliefs, and a number of inmates are involved in religious activities.
The Chaplain has an establishment of part-time ministers representing the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Nonconformists and other Christian groups, and the Jewish, Muslim and Sikh religions.

The Prison Visitors Scheme is managed by the Prison Chaplain. This scheme provides visitors from the local community for prisoners who might not otherwise receive visitors.

7.3.7 Foreign Nationals

HMP Coldingley has a large number of foreign nationals who upon completing their sentences are generally deported. These prisoners are normally kept on one of the four wings where they can be given support. The Library makes a special effort to meet their needs. They have also formed their own support group.

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8 Examples of good practice

8.1 The Crime Diversion Scheme (formerly known as The Youth Project)

This is a unique prisoner initiative that has been running for several years and is designed to deter young people from a life of crime. Almost every week a party of young people thought to be at risk of offending are invited into the prison.

Selected prisoners through role-play try to show the young people how they got on the slippery slope into crime and what life is like within prison. The young people also discuss with the prisoners the choices that may result in them turning to crime, and the misery that such choices cause for family and friends as well as the offender himself.

We believe that this scheme has a beneficial effect not only on the young people who visit, but also on the prisoners who participate, by helping them to reflect on the circumstances which brought them into prison, and by giving them the self-respect that comes from helping others. The scheme, which is now run by a charity, involves a number of outside groups such as Youth Offending Teams, and School Inclusion Projects.

It was the case that the young people toured the prison but the Prison Service, for reasons not clear to the Board, now only allow the young people into the visitors area.

8.2 Listeners

There are a number of prisoners at HMP Coldingley who have been trained by The Samaritans to act as listeners for prisoners who are experiencing difficulties. This seems to work well.

8.3 Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB)

Within the prison there is a sub-branch of the Woking CAB. At least one of the prisoners has been trained by the CAB to act as a counsellor. The counsellor deals with about 40 prisoner’s problems each month.

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9 The work of the Board

9.1 Rota visits

The prison was visited and inspected by at least one Board member every week during the year. Some visits took place at unusual times. All visits were unannounced.

Prisoners and staff were always polite and respectful to members, and generally helpful in dealing with queries.

The relationship between the Board and prison staff, including the Governor and his senior staff, remains cordial and the Board are grateful for their help.

It is a credit to the staff and prisoners that the prison was usually in a clean and tidy state with attractive and colourful flowerbeds

9.2 Applications made by prisoners to see a Board member.

There were only 58 formal applications made by prisoners during the year, which is a reduction on last year and a very low number even by HMP Coldingley’s standards. An uncounted number of less formal issues were dealt with as a result of conversations with prisoners during rota visits.

Property issues were the largest number of complaints and the Prison Service was found wanting on a number of occasions.

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10 Conclusions

Whilst there is much criticism in this report, it is the Board’s view that Coldingley is not a bad prison and is generally still well run. However, if it is to continue to offer an environment that allows prisoners to equip themselves for life outside prison then the shortcomings need to be rectified.

The prison is well equipped and gives prisoners the ability to fill their days through work, education, recreation and religious activities. It also offers a wide variety of counselling, therapy and other support services.

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Appendix A

Summary of applications to the Board

Of the 58 applications received during the year,
Between 6 and 10 related to each of the following:-

Property

Between 3 and 5 related to each of the following:-

Transfers/Categorization
Sentence plans
Discrimination
Visits
Medical
Adjudications
Telephone charges

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Appendix B

Adjudications

During the year there were 516 adjudication under Rule 51 (Offences against discipline) of which 461 were proven and 55 dismissed.

Summary of adjudications

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Appendix C

Board activities

Board membership

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