Private Punishment: Who Profits?

A report published today by the Prison Reform Trust, with contributions from the Bishop of Worcester and Bishop to HM Prisons, Rt Revd Dr Peter Selby, and the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Brendan Barber, calls for an open and vigorous debate about the role of the private sector in running prisons.

With the most privatised prison system in Europe and Government plans to extend the scope of competition the report argues that there is a need to reassess the merits of prison privatisation and the ethics of large companies profiting from the incarceration of thousands of people.

The report Private Punishment: Who Profits? acknowledges that private sector innovation has, in some cases, improved regimes but it raises questions about efficiency savings and the need for private companies to achieve economies of scale.

Unpublished figures show that the performance of private prisons against key targets is mixed with many failing to meet targets on serious assaults, drugs and purposeful activity. Whilst there are some private prisons that are performing very well others are experiencing difficulties. Overall the pay and conditions for staff in private prisons are inferior to those in public prisons and staff turnover is higher.

At a time of record prison numbers and chronic overcrowding the report says that there is a need to question a system where companies have a vested interest in keeping the prison population as high as possible.

The report raises concerns about the lack of accountability of private companies with Parliament and the public unable to openly scrutinise the contracts handed out to prison operators. It also questions the Government’s plans to transfer to directors of private prisons additional powers concerning the segregation, control and punishment of prisoners.

There are currently ten private prisons in England and Wales:

Parc in Wales, Altcourse near Liverpool, Lowdham Grange near Nottingham, Ashfield near Bristol, Forest Bank near Manchester, Rye Hill near Rugby, Dovegate in Staffordshire, Bronzefield in Middlesex, the Wolds in Yorkshire and Doncaster.

Another private prison, HMP Peterborough, is due to open in March.

The report also looks at the profits, and the windfall gains from the refinancing of PFI loans, made by the four private companies that operate prisons in England and Wales.

Speaking today the Director of the Prison Reform Trust, Juliet Lyon, said:

‘Even those who believe that ethical or moral considerations about prison privatisation are misplaced or outdated should surely stop and think about the impact of prison privatisation on criminal justice policy and the treatment of offenders. Is it sensible, without public and parliamentary debate, to develop competition which could produce innovative and cost-effective practice but could equally drive down standards and reduce prison safety? Could efforts to re-balance the criminal justice system and reform prisons be hindered, or knocked off course, by the development of vested interests and economies of scale leading to large establishments miles from prisoners’ homes rather than smaller community prisons that would aid resettlement?’

Rt Revd Dr Peter Selby, Bishop of Worcester and Bishop to HM Prisons, said:

“What the Prison Reform Trust is asking is: are there some specific concerns, beyond the general debate about privatisation, that apply when prisons are involved? If numbers in prisons need to be reduced – as most agree – is it helpful to create an interest in their growth among companies and their shareholders? Are there some real conflicts of interest which we are likely to have to address: for instance will judges and jurors have to be vetted to ensure that they do not have an interest in sending more people to prison? More generally, if prisons become part of the ‘commercial sector’, do those running them have an interest in reducing regimes or staffing levels in ways that militate against the restorative aims of imprisonment?
 
Even if particular prisons – the majority – remain in the public sector, does ‘contestability’ mean that the ethos of the whole service is actually dictated by the aims of the private sector? Or does the whole service benefit by the presence of private ‘providers’?
 
These are just some of the questions which ‘private prisons’ raise, and it is good that the Prison Reform Trust is raising them. They ask for a vigorous public debate, and I join them in hoping for a good response.”

Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said:

"This valuable and timely report from the Prison Reform Trust exposes the realities of the UK's network of private prisons. It clearly shows that efficiencies have been achieved largely at the expense of terms and conditions for prison staff - and that this has had a negative impact on staff turnover and service delivery. To make matters worse, there has been little Parliamentary scrutiny of the contracts handed to operators, meaning for taxpayers there is a serious lack of accountability. That's why the time is right for a proper public debate on the ethics of introducing the profit motive into our criminal justice system. And - ahead of a probable general election - we need to think long and hard about whether this type of private provision should be extended into other public
services."

Notes to Editors:

1. There are over seven thousand adults and young offenders held in ten private prisons in England and Wales, just under ten per cent of the prison population.

2. Eight have been built and are run by the private sector under PFI contracts and two were built and financed by the public sector but are operated by private companies under management only contracts.

3. Serco PLC subsidiary, Premier Custodial Group, runs four prisons. Falck AS, formerly owned by Group 4, is the holding company for GSL which runs three prisons. Sodexho-owned UK Detention Services Ltd runs two and will be opening a third in March, and Securicor Justice Services (now owned by Group 4 Securicor) runs one prison.

4. The UK has the most privatised prison system in Europe, and although there are not as many private jails as in the United States the proportion of prisoners in private prisons is higher.