Prison will not close, governor says, amid concern over jobs

One of the two Victorian wings at Hull Jail on Hedon Road, has already shut as part of an overhaul announced just 12 days ago by the Government.

Governor Norman Griffin said the prison would continue to be a “secure and decent” jail, and he believes job losses will be around 33, none of them compulsory. There had been fears of as many as 129 job losses.

However East Hull MP Karl Turner is worried about the jobs situation and is seeking a meeting with Prisons Minister Jeremy Wright with a delegation from the Prison Officers Association.

Union representatives blame the cutbacks on soft sentencing by the Government. Rob Nicholson, chairman of the Hull branch of the POA, quoted figures from the Centre for Crime Prevention, suggesting two-thirds of serious repeat offenders were avoiding jail.

He said: “C wing at Hull has now closed and staff have been redeployed at other parts of the prison. D wing is still planned to close before March. There’s 38 members of staff affected by the closure of C and D wings, but ultimately we are all affected. The Ministry of Justice’s figures are 129, but the Governor is disputing this - he is absolutely defending staff numbers.

“If you reduce the numbers of staff, the public lose their confidence in safety and ultimately our goal is to protect the public.”

He added: “How can we fulfil the Coalition’s promises on rehabilitation, taking prisoners out of prisons and putting them in other prisons which don’t cater for their offending behaviour?”

A bench-marking team from the National Offender Management Service is going round every jail in the country, including Hull, to assess how many staff are needed, on a value for money basis.

Mr Griffin said: “This is about getting the best service for the best cost for the taxpayer. We have always been a low cost, high performing prison and we will retain that status I am sure of that. We have just got to look at new ways of working.

“The bench-marking programme operates on the premise that every prison will have safe and decent operating levels.”

The reductions will see the jail’s capacity fall from 1,044 to 762, but Mr Griffin said there would still be plenty of capacity for prisoners to be held at local jails which include Everthorpe and Wolds. The cost of replacing the Victorian wings had been put at £42m.

He said: “We had four wings, health centre and gym built five or six years ago that is excellent accommodation; the other wings A and B are reasonably new. There are still six wings in total and we are able to maintain a healthy and decent environment in strong secure accommodation.

“People have been thinking the prison will close, far from it, the prison will not close, I am absolutely confident of that.

“I have spoken to the chief executive of NOMS about it - it is not for closing.”

He said they were securing funding for a voluntary early retirement programme, and several people had already applied.

Mr Turner said: “My main concern in east Hull is jobs.

“We have a prison which has a great number of people employed and when I speak to the POA they tell me they are worried about jobs, but also about maintaining safety. The governor is saying he can reduce his prison officers by 33.5; the POA think it is more like 129. If it is 129 they are very, very concerned about the safety of their members. The Government’s plan is to mothball C and D wings. I think the Government realises there’s a problem coming, the potential of another 2011 riot situation, where they would need the prison capacity. The Government is not going the whole way and I think they are right to be worried.”