Report on prison ‘does not give the full picture’

While the IMP report urged the prison to look at electronic tagging to combat its increasing population, Mr Matthews said there are already plans to see initial trials of early conditional release using electronic monitoring this summer.

Another recommendation in the report was to have a full-time mental health professional to improve healthcare in the prison.

The prison tried to recruit one in the past but has not been successful.

‘Mental health is a wide spectrum of different needs and the four nurses who work at the prison seven days per week and the close work we do with Health & Social Care is the best way of dealing with referrals and necessary specialist treatment,’ Mr Matthews said.

‘The IMP are a group of well-meaning volunteers who listen to prisoners and come to conclusions based on that, but the bigger picture is that we actually work very closely with HSC and provide a very good service – prisoners have the same access to what the community has.’

In terms of sharing information about prisoners, Mr Matthews said some staff were provided with necessary information and work is continuing with HSC to ensure that is still the case, but some details cannot be shared for data protection and privacy reasons.

Refurbishment of the J wing, particularly of the showers, was also mentioned in the IMP report.

‘We do not have the money [around £140,000] to prioritise re-doing the showers and drainage which are in fine condition considering they are in use almost constantly throughout the day by inmates who have gotten sweaty or dirty at work in the prison,’ he said.

Funding for the first phase of the J wing project was approved but the second set of money was not and the refurbishment had to be done all at once.

‘I am hoping to have the money this year – I know that Home Affairs balances the books well and the current system where you have to bid for money is the right system – but there are more capital projects than there is funding available.

‘At some point the showers will have to be re-done but that’s when it climbs to the top of the priority list.’

The prison service is capital-conscious and utilises growing and horticultural projects to supply the prison with crops, saving around £20,000 a year, while giving inmates the opportunity to learn new skills and gain qualifications.

‘The wings are very quiet in the day because we encourage prisoners to work to build up their education and skills to help them when they leave,’ said Mr Matthews.