The chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, was so concerned by the state of Rye Hill prison that she “immediately informed ministers and urged the chief executive of the National Offender Management Service to take immediate and decisive action”. The report contains accounts of assaults, deaths, hostage-taking, indiscipline and high availability of drugs, drink and mobile telephones for prisoners. Rye Hill, near Rugby, is a private prison run by GSL.
 
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:
 
“This is one of the most damning reports of a prison we have seen.  This prison appears to be run not by a private company, but by the prisoners themselves.  The advantages of prisoners having time out of their cells are overturned by their having to survive in an unsafe environment.  The job of a prison is to reduce crime not to foster it.”
 
The unannounced report followed on from an Inspectorate report in 2003 that raised concerns about inexperienced staff being too thinly spread. The follow up report says, “the prison had deteriorated to the extent that we considered that it was at that time an unsafe and unstable environment, both for prisoners and staff.”
 
The report also highlights the huge staff turnover at the prison, estimated by managers at around 40 per cent a year.  The report draws attention to where turnover is highest in face to face work with prisoners.  It says “some wings with over 70 prisoners were in the control of two PCOs [prison custody officers] who had been in the establishment only a few weeks.”  The Inspector comments on the ‘keenness and enthusiasm’ of residential staff but was critical of their lack of training and adequate management support.
 
Juliet Lyon said:
 
“The staff turnover at Rye Hill would disgrace many burger bars. If contestability is driving down costs by cutting salaries and leading to staff coming and going, then it is a false economy. This level of staff turnover is hazardous to safety and undermines the work of a prison in guiding prisoners towards a responsible life on release.”
 
Coinciding with the publication of this inspection report, the National Offender Management Service has recently released an annual statement of performance and financial information for the contacted prisons. The foreword by Chief Executive Martin Narey talks of “a year of solid achievement, flexibility and innovation against a
backdrop of significant and challenging operational demand.”  Of Rye Hill it simply says it has been “a cause of significant concern and, in the forthcoming year, I expect to see significant improvements.”  GSL reports that it has put ‘a challenging improvement plan’ in place.
 
The report also includes GSL’s philosophy for its prisons: “to create an environment in which both staff and prisoners feel safe and the causes of prison stress are minimised.”
 
Juliet Lyon said:
 
“The NOMS report on private prisons reads more like a sales brochure than a serious detailed analysis of the performance of each prison against agreed objectives.  Only robust scrutiny of how each prison’s security and resettlement works or fails serves the public interest.”

The report is available at the HMCIP's website